Bowser's Apprentice
by jracacia
Summary: The direct sequel to "Adventure of a Lifetime"Bowser has decided to invade the Mushroom Kingdom for the second time and kidnap the princesses again. But this time he has something in store for the Mario Brothers. Someone who may have the same skill set as the brothers and could possible defeat them both. Content references Super Mario 64. Marioxpeach and luigixdaisy as well. Enjoy
1. Revenge

Bowser's Apprentice

The Darklands was under heavy rebuilding since its last invasion by the Mario Brothers. The villages that were under the Koopa Empire's domain were still being rebuilt. Bowser's castle itself needed few repairs due to it taking not as much damage, but the psychological effects of the guards there were more damaged. Slowly, but surely, they were recovering and they wanted revenge for their foiled attempt to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland. Ever since that fateful day of the invasion, there had been new technological advancements in the Koopa Empire's weaponry. Whether it would be effective against the Mario Brothers would be a test of its own, but the Koopa troops were confident that it would work, motivated by the need for avenging their fallen brethren in battle. However, none had the desire for revenge more than their leader, King Bowser.

Ever since that battle, he had been resting and healing from the scars both mentally and physically suffered from his humiliating defeat. The first, second, and third degree burns were prevalent at first, but started to finish as time had passed. The nightmares he had suffered of the brothers beating him over and over again subsided with time as well. He was a shell of himself literally for a while. But now, he was ready to plan his revenge against the Mario Brothers and finished what he started. Bowser had started dabbling in research into some of the Mushroom Kingdom's secrets including what he considered to be the most important ingredient to his revenge, the Power Stars. He had studied their secrets, learning of their abilities to make someone more powerful than what they had hoped to become and when all one hundred twenty stars are collected, he could become almost godlike in power, being invulnerable to destruction. But, he had to start small and plan in small steps. "That was my downfall," Bowser thought slowly clenching his fists as he was not fully recovered from his last defeat. "I let the plan become too big for me to handle. I've got to take this slow. Only then will I have my revenge on those plumbers."

Over the course of the few months after the invasion, Bowser did research on the Mario Brothers. He knew of where they came from, their names, and occupations and all of the relevant background information he needed to know. He also knew of the affections the Mario Brothers had towards the princesses, something he could use to further advance his plans if he needed to. He had also sent scout Koopas over the past few months to also gather information on the castle itself, as he needed his plan to concentrate only in the Mushroom Kingdom, and not lead another invasion back in the Darklands. "It's too risky," Bowser thought concentrating hard on his upcoming plan. "If Mario and Luigi decided to come back again for another invasion, my empire would be lost."

Bowser had also begun practicing magic in order to better his abilities. He was only a novice so far, learning the art of disguise as it was the core part of his master plan to take control of the Kingdom. The reason why was ambiguous as he never did share this fact to this troops, who just assumed he was always bedridden. Bowser had only wanted to seem weak to his troops to motivate and inspire them to want to exact revenge on the Mario Brothers for their supposed part in weakening their leader.

"Master," called one of the Koopa troops nervously approaching Bowser in his bedroom. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I think it's time we call a meeting. Find all of the Koopa officers and tell them to go to the throne room. I have one more thing that must be done before our plan can be put into effect." Bowser commanded, slowly getting up from his bed as he made his way towards his throne room. The throne room was fully repaired after it was disheveled due to the battle that took place there only a few months ago. The throne chair was fully repaired; the lava pit was covered up again with a new floor. Bowser slowly sat down in his throne chair, emitting low groans and moans of pain from the burns suffered from the lava pit. The Koopa officers slowly made their way, making a line of 10 of the best Koopa officers Bowser had mustered, all bowing down to them with absolute loyalty.

"Milord," said one of the Koopa officers, still in a kneeled position. "Why have you called us your benevolence?"

"I have an important mission that you must accomplish before we can execute our invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom." Bowser replied, his fingers on his left hand tapping on the left armrest on his chair. "I've been thinking about it for quite some time. I believe that in order to beat the Mario Brothers, we need to fight fire with fire. Bring something from their world to use against them."

"What are you suggesting milord?" asked another Koopa officer, who was also in a kneeled position.

"I am suggesting bringing someone from Mario and Luigi's world and train him or her to become my apprentice. " Bowser replied with a small grin on his face. "It would be perfect as most of these humans probably have more talent and skill than those plumbers."

"It would take convincing for one of their own to fight against one of their known for an unknown cause." Said another one of the Koopa officers, causing Bowser to glare towards him, which made the Koopa afraid. "B-but s-surely you milord can convince him to fight for us."

"Don't worry about the convincing part," Bowser said in a confident voice. "Leave that part to me. Now go find him!" The Koopa officers dispersed, entering a warp pipe to the real world that was found in the Darklands a month ago after careful exploration of the area. "Curiosity will lead that human to me," Bowser thought having his grin becoming a little wilder. "All I need is patience." So Bowser waited at his throne room, waiting for his potential new apprentice to be delivered to him by the Koopa troops.


	2. The Ranger

The Koopa officers proceeded to venture off into the warp pipe. Each of them carefully climbed into the warp pipe after waiting 5 minutes to for each one of them to successfully slide over into the pipe. When it was all said and done, the Koopa officers all met up in Central Park, New York.

"Ok boys," one of the Koopa officers said to the rest of them. "The boss has several areas that one of us has to cover to find the 'perfect specimen' to be his apprentice. Here are your assignments. If everything works out perfectly, we should find him in no less than a day. MOVE OUT!" The Koopa officers had ascended to the sky and proceeded to venture off to the areas being covered. One of them stayed in New York as it was his designated assignment. The others were sent off to Boston, Miami, Minnesota, Dallas, Las Vegas, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Denver in order to find the perfect apprentice for Bowser.

The scouts in New York, Boston, Miami, Minnesota, Dallas, Las Vegas, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles were all unsuccessful at trying to find the apprentice, finding either no talent or the fact that they didn't have the personality that they needed. They had checked back with the Colorado scout who up to that point in time did not find anyone.

"Nothing over here guys. I guess we won't find anyone here that has the talent to be Bowser's apprentice. Let's pack it in an-". The Denver Koopa scout said before catching something at the glimpse at his eye. There was a figure leaping to rooftops, in pursuit mode of something that the Koopa couldn't see it. "I think I may have found something. I'll check back later." The Koopa scout then flew over closer to where the supposed action was taking place.

Meanwhile on the city streets of Denver, a thief was retreating back to his hideout. He had stolen a bunch of money at a nearby bank, and was proceeding to make off with the cash. His hideout was nearby and escaping to it made him believe that he would be safe there. He didn't know he was being pursued by the mysterious figure up above on the rooftops. Up above was the mysterious figure running after him, leaping from rooftop to rooftop just to capture him. "When will these criminals ever learn?" Thought the figure as he didn't seem to be exhausted trying to pursue the thief. The figure wore a green hooded cape, along with brown hiking boots that also was good for running, green pants that seemed to match his cape, a green vest with a white undershirt, a brown bow with a quiver that contained several pouches each carrying arrows of different types, as well as a sheathed falchion in his right pocket.

"Almost there." Mumbled the thief as he saw his hideout in the distance. The thief panicked as he saw the figure from above leap down and proceeded to be in front of his path. "Dammit it's that Rosario guy," the thief thought trying to find a way out of his predicament. "Maybe I can find a way out of this." The thief pulled out his knife, but hid it from sight as he didn't want to fight the figure unless it was his last resort. "Hey Jordan, can we just talk about this?" The thief asked, but didn't get a response from the figure. "I'll give you half my cut if you just let me pass. Come on, you've tackled so many criminals like me. What's letting a small bit criminal going free going to do to your reputation?" Still the figure didn't respond, his right hand tightly clutching his bow. "Alright you left me no choice ranger." The thief thought as he pulled out his knife and proceeded to charge at him, only to stop dead in his tracks a few seconds later falling to the ground, slain in battle. The ranger could only look at the figure, disappointed at his feeble attempt to stop him.

"Should a quit when you had a pulse," the ranger thought as he put his bow away, and left the scene as the Denver Police rushed to the scene.

"Dam another kid picked off by this ranger guy." A cop said to his partner, who was staring at the protruding arrow coming out of the deceased thief's chest. "This guy's a marksman vigilante. I want to stop him, but he's doing this city so much good when he needs it, even if it comes to dead criminals."

"Yep," replied the partner still focusing his attention at the corpse. "Would be a real honor to meet the guy who did this."

The cops waited for the ambulance to come to pick up the dead thief and take him over to the morgue. They then left to the other crimes elsewhere in Denver as the only person left at the scene was the Koopa, amazed at the talent he had just witnessed. "I can't believe what I just saw," though the Koopa still shocked in awe by Jordan's performance. "This is the apprentice that Bowser needs. Better call the boys; we need to meet with this supposed ranger." The Koopa officer placed a homing beacon, coming standard know with the technological advancements the Koopa Empire has made over the past few months and waited for the officers to get over there. The officers had made within a few hours and all of them met at an abandoned part of Denver to talk about the potential recruit the officer there had witnessed. "I have to tell you gentlemen," the Koopa officer said pointing out towards the area where he saw the ranger in action. "This could be the guy Bowser wants. We just have to convince him to come with us to the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Well, what makes him capable?" asked another Koopa officer. "What makes him worthy to come back to the Mushroom Kingdom to face up against the Mario Brothers?"

"Well," replied the Koopa officer scouting him, pulling out a notepad revealing the notes he had taken on Jordan. "His excellent stamina, his marksman like range, the appearance of being a hero in this city, as well as the willingness to kill someone off. It's exactly what the Mario Brothers are and will be their equal. He could be the key to getting our revenge on them. To further advance the Koopa Empire into greatness."

"Well then what are waiting for?" cried out another Koopa officer looking out towards the city of Denver. "Let's go find him." With that, the Koopa officers set off, trying to find the man that they needed to become the key ingredient in Bowser's revenge plot.


	3. The Letter

Jordan went back to his apartment through a back route passage, as to not avert attention to him. The ranger was his disguise, his cover for trying to be a vigilante. Sure, he knew it was clichéd, having it been done by various heroes before him, but he didn't care. It was what he wanted to do, help people no matter the cost, even if it meant taking a life. This life was meant for him because he could do things he knew would cost other people a piece of their soul. The ranger persona was his comfort, his opportunity to do good, and his solace.

He had swung the back door to his apartment, taking a sigh of relief as he was able to rest now following his day of vigilantism. "Another day of justice," the ranger thought as he closed the door behind him. "Time to rest and prepare for another." He put his hooded cape on a hanger, his bow and quiver and sword on a shelf, his shirt and pants in a drawer, and proceeded to go to his bathroom to take a shower. The ranger revealed himself to have a tall body, around six feet, with a muscular physique and a good personality to match. It's everyone women's dream to have someone like that, but he never took to them believing they were shallow and not the ideal woman he was dreaming of. The ranger liked the steam from the hot showers he took, to him it was like a mysterious scene that was waiting to be developed and he could paint pictures in his mind and imagine whatever he wanted. He drifted off in thought, allowing the hot water to stream all over him which soothed his soreness and exhaustion from the day's activities.

The Koopa officers tracked him back into his place, taking a look into the décor of his apartment. Jordan's apartment was as big as a small house. It came complete with a kitchen, bedroom, living room, and a bathroom. However, the Koopas admired his taste as they couldn't help but noticed his flat screen TV and his high quality laptop as well as a myriad of other luxurious items that he had displayed. "You gotta admit, this kid's got good taste." Said one of the Koopas admiring the décor that was plastered over his apartment including multiple Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Avalanche merchandise.

"Shut up and drop off the letter," commanded one of the officers, patiently waiting by the window where the Koopas had entered from. "We don't want the kid to know that the place was invaded by a bunch of strangers." The Koopa officers dropped the letter off as they hurried out of the apartment, as they heard the shower being turned off.

"What do you think?" one of the Koopas asked flying off to where the warp pipe was located in Denver. "Do you think the kid will come back and become our apprentice?"

"You kidding me." Of the other Koopa officers replied. "The way we wrote that letter, there will be no doubt he will be willing to join us."

"For the Koopa Empire's sake, I hope you're right. If everything that you said was true about the kid, he's the key to fight the Mario Brothers." The Koopa flew off to the distance, waiting for the reply from the Ranger whether or not he would join them on their quest for revenge.

The Ranger got out of the shower, covering himself in a plain white t-shirt and black cotton pajama pants. Before going to sleep, he wanted to watch a little TV mainly to find out about the day's events. He was pleased to know the Denver's crime rate has gone down 10 percent from last year, which was the year he started to become a crime fighting vigilante.

"Hehe, glad I'm doing something right." He mumbled to himself as he read the other headlines revolving around his favorite sports teams, miscellaneous news from the president and other trivial issues. He proceeded to turn off his TV and retreat back to his bedroom when he spotted a letter addressed to The Ranger. "Oh I hope this isn't another fan letter," muttered the ranger as he picked up the letter and opened it to reveal that the paper and style of writing he was reading wasn't like any letter that came from Colorado or America for that matter. "Hmm…this is interesting." He proceeded to read the letter, which seemed to be a proposal for an adventure. The letter read like this:

Dear Ranger,

You seem to have many talents for a crime fighting hero like yourself. Talents that I have come to realized are needed for a mission. A mission to restore balance to my world. I have no time to explain as I don't want to confuse you anymore but I will tell you this. This place you live in is not the only world in which creatures exist. We have a world just like yours with our own civilizations, our own kingdoms, our own enemies. However, some of our enemies have duped our system, kidnapped our leaders and have threatened the very extermination of a peaceful coexistence and a peaceful way of life. If you're calling of fighting with valor and honor, carrying out justice, and overall sense of adventure is telling you to keep going, then it must mean I have your attention. All I ask is you at least hear me out and learn more of our plight with these foul creatures. Meet us at a foundation where there are natural red rock foundations where apparently concerts are hosted. I look forward to meeting you and I hope you make the right decision as you are the hero we don't deserve, but we need.

Sincerely,

The Koopa Empire

"The Koopa Empire," thought Jordan reading that name over and over again. "I've never heard that name until now." He pondered in thought, thinking about the next move he should make, clenching the letter in his hands. "I better go see what they want from me, humor them with their proposal for adventure." Jordan put on his ranger capote and exited his apartment from the back door as to not bring attention to himself. He then leaped off the fire escape silently landing on the ground. He then proceeded to what he thought the meeting was going to take place, the Red Rocks Ampitheater.


	4. Brainwashed

Jordan finally got to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, slowly moving forward in case an ambush was to strike him at any moment. His breathing getting slower and slower and footsteps treaded more lightly as he approached the dimly lit concert area of the amphitheater where he saw figures moving about, humanoid in appearance but not knowing if they were human or not. "What are those things?" Jordan thought as he grabbed his bow in case he needed to fight them. "And are they a threat to me?" He crouched under the seats as to not avoid their detection until he got to a favorable position where he could easily dispatch them with his bow. "Well I guess I got nothing to lose. It will be fun if I do end up fighting them." He then yelled at the top of his lungs "HEY!" as to gain their attention as the Koopa officers looked at him, recognizing him as the recruit they were looking for.

"Are you the one they call the Ranger?" asked one of the Koopa Officers.

"Indeed I am," the ranger called out as he leaped to the amphitheater stage from his position, getting small grins from the Koopa Officers, happy that they had finally found him. "You called me to an adventure, now I want to know what is going on."

"You will soon find out ranger," replied another of the Koopa Officers inspecting the ranger's gear, seeing nothing quite like the Ranger had on ever before. "All the answers you seek lie in the green warp pipe." The Koopa then pointed to a large green warp pipe coming out from the back of the amphitheater. "If you do accept our proposal for adventure, then join us." The Koopa Officers then flew into the pipe, returning back to the Mushroom Kingdom, with the Ranger just standing in shock.

"Were those the Koopas?" Jordan thought as a strange uneasy feeling entered his bones as he remembered parts of the letter again.

_Flashback 15 minutes ago_

_This place you live in is not the only world in which creatures exist. We have a world just like yours with our own civilizations, our own kingdoms, our own enemies._

_End of Flashback_

Jordan stared at the pipe, which would lead him into another world just as the letter had promised, going back into his thoughts again. "If the letter claims to be as true as it sounds, and I have just discovered a different world with its civilizations, its creatures, then who the bloody hell are its enemies?" Jordan decided that it be better to find out for himself what this could lead him into as he leaped into the green warp pipe and slid down, not knowing that it would change his life forever.

Jordan finally leaped out the pipe, in which the ride seemed like fifty minutes to him, into what was a very strange land indeed. He appeared in the Darklands, seeing the devastation of villages, and fires still trying to be put out since the invasion of the Mario Brothers. He saw Goombas and Koopas, which were foreign creatures to him, so miserable and depressed over the destruction of their great empire, that it was a tear jerker to him. "What…could have… done this?" He thought as he started to break down, putting one knee in the ground while attempting to hide his face from anyone that could see him cry. He couldn't contain his emotions that were building inside him as the last time he cried was so long ago by an experience he had that he would like to forget. The Koopa officers approached, seeing tears in his eyes from all the devastation that he saw before him. Their plan to convince him was working.

"As you can see, there has been much devastation through our empire, an unprovoked attack by THOSE PEOPLE!" One of the Koopa officers explained as he pointed his finger towards the Mushroom Kingdom. "There was so much destruction…so much death…so much suffering…so much…so much." The Koopa officer could not contain himself as he began to cry, which made the Ranger try to comfort him, causing him much anger towards the Mushroom Kingdom. The other nine Koopa Officers were smiling unbeknownst to the Ranger, as their plan to convince the Ranger to join them in their revenge plot was going to plan.

"You must take me to your leader," said the Ranger in a soft voice, trying to contain himself and not unleash any more tears. "I would like to help him stop the Mushroom Kingdom and bring an end to the savage brutes that have destroyed your territory." The Ranger stood up, clenching his fists in anger as well as his teeth.

"Of course, we will take you to our castle," replied one of the Koopa officers as he motioned the Ranger to follow him. "He will be very pleased to see you as we hope to fight the Mushroom Kingdom to a standstill. Just allow us to contact him." The Koopa Officer then pulled out a communication device as he finally had gotten Bowser on the line. "Master, we have found the apprentice you have been searching for and we are taking him to you."

"Excellent, send him here as soon as we can. I need to 'prepare' for our guest's arrival." Bowser replied as he used his magic to transform himself into a noble old man, declaring himself the ruler of the mushroom kingdom, enforcing a strong relationship between Koopas and Humans.

The Koopa officers took Jordan to the castle, where Bowser was waiting for him in his human disguise form. "All we have to do is cross this bridge and enter his throne room, and then you can finally understand what we are up against since our leader knows more than any of us do." One of the Koopa officers said as he led Jordan across the bridge to the throne room, where Bowser had awaited him.

"Ahh so you are the Ranger that my people have been talking about," exclaimed Bowser in his human form as he shook the Ranger's hand. "Come, we have much to discuss and I am sure you want to know the current situation here and where exactly you are…"


	5. The Meeting

The Ranger was guided by Bowser to a table where they both sat on opposite ends. Bowser kept a small smile on his face, to make sure the Ranger felt welcome to be at his kingdom rather than just a prisoner like the last time he used his throne room. "Would you like something to eat or drink before we get started?" asked Bowser grabbing a pile of documents on the floor next to his chair.

"Yeah why not." Replied Jordan, still a little upset over the destruction of the Darklands that he witnessed. "I'll have a glass of water, and whatever good meat that you have to eat." The Ranger then leaned back in his chair, contemplating his next move anticipating the information Bowser was about to give him.

"Alright then I'll send a Koopa to grab us something my friend," Bowser replied as he ordered a Koopa to prepare them something to eat in a nicer tone than usual since Bowser had to keep up the disguise of being a benevolent human. He then gathered the documents and placed them on the table by his side. "I've been reading a few files on you Ranger. You appear to be a skilled marksman with your bow as well as handy with your sword. Incredible stamina and endurance. Incredible agility. I won't lie that is something that I look forward to in helping me out in my greatest task to stop the impending invasions and attacks on the Koopa Empire. But you are inexperienced. You have raw talent, but you don't know how to use your talents to your full potential."

"Who is this guy to say how much I train and don't train." Thought Jordan as he his arms crossed in a ticked off mood. "Whatever, as long as this buffoon explains to me what the hell is going on in this kingdom."

"But I can teach you Ranger. I used to be a fighter until age had overtaken me, but I still have trained my Koopas until their perfect peak of combat expertise kicks in. Then they train the Koopas before them, and the cycle continues, each generation learning new tricks as our world and your world evolves with new technology and new weapons to fight with. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, my troops can teach to become even more powerful and lethal than you are now. A great weapon to help us on our adventure and on your adventures to come. But you have to be willing to be taught in order for it to work. It won't be easy either, but if you're ready and motivated you can overcome and succeed. So what will it be Ranger, will you train with us and then help us on our quest?"

The Ranger took in his two options carefully. He knew going back now would leave him more questions than answer about the new place that he was in now, though he didn't know whether to trust Bowser at this point even though he seemed like a good ruler to his people even in the face of the tragic event that has befallen his empire. He also knew besides the comfortable life in Denver, he really had no reason to go back. Most of his family was living in New York, and that he could easily call them with his cellphone, and he had a lot of friends but they come and go very fast to him. He also had no potential love interest back home, none of the girls appeared to him. So to him, taking on this adventure would be a change in pace for his life and he had nothing to lose. "Alright I do it, but tell me what I'm up against at least. I want to know what I'm exactly fighting against before the training gets underway."

"I'm glad you asked," Bowser replied a big grin appearing in his face as he opened the documents and slid them to the Ranger taking a good look at all of them, one at a time. "The first document you have in front of you is a photograph of our true enemy, the Mario Brothers. More specifically their names are Mario and Luigi. Apparently they come from your world as well, they have lived somewhere in a city called Brooklyn, New York. They look like plumbers but don't let their appearance fool you. They are some of the most dangerous enemies the Koopa Empire has faced in a while. Most of the Koopas don't know this but they have taken the Mushroom Kingdom under a totalitarian state of shock and fear. They have crippled fear upon its citizens and have made virtual prisoners of the princesses of both the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland, who are allies of the Koopa Empire." That statement almost made Bowser revolt in disgust but in order for his plan to work he had to say that he was friendly with them, in order to not get any second thoughts by the Ranger. He wanted him to be his pawn in this plot, and he couldn't have him questioning his orders at all. "Now the next document that you have in front of you is a photograph of the Mushroom Kingdom, a Kingdom inhabited by Toads, one of the other more prevalent species in this world. They are also under virtual enslavement by the Mario Brothers and we have to help them in any way we can." Bowser cleared his throat as he revealed what the last document contained. "The last photo is the princesses in question. Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Daisy of Sarasaland."

"Oh my," Jordan responded in a state of awe by the princesses' beauty. "They are beautiful. They must be lucky to inhibit such genes from their parents before."

"Well not only are they beautiful my friend but they are smart, witty, funny, nice, and athletic. Anything you would want in a woman." Bowser then gave the Ranger a playful smile, which caused him to hide his cheeks as they were flushing from the sincere attraction he had to them.

"Are you trying to set me up with them sir?" Jordan asked as Bowser just shrugged his shoulders.

"You're putting words into my mouth my friend." Bowser replied as he went back on track to talk about the mission. "Anyway they have also been under virtual prisoners of the Mario Brothers and they must be set free. So know that you know all of this, are you willing to go forward with the mission?"

The ranger stood up and put his bow and falchion on the table. "Bowser, you have my bow and blade as well as my determination to have an allied kingdom of yours and put an end to these miserable tyrants."

"Excellent." Bowser replied as he noticed the Koopa coming back from their meals. "First we eat, and then we will start on your training."


	6. The Training

The ranger had undergone more training to improve his combat skills. The first test that he had to endure was his sword fighting skills. He had trained with the best Koopas, who invented swords during the time after their territory was attacked by the Mario Brothers, skilled in sword fighting and was able to beat them with 2 weeks of practice. The ranger also learned how to break Koopa shells with his falchion, which worried Bowser a bit as he watched his training from afar. "I must remember not to betray him then until I know he is dead or if I get the power stars." Bowser thought as kept watching the Ranger practice his skills. During his time spent in training, Bowser made him stay in the dungeon room. However, he had to refurbish to make it look like a guest room as to not alert suspicion from his young apprentice. His breakfasts, lunches, and dinners consisted of mostly meat whether it was cheep cheep meat or toad meat, unbeknownst to the Ranger himself who always assumed it was cheep cheep meat. The only free time that he did have, he dedicated to reading up on history about this world as his thirst of knowledge grew.

After the sword fighting, the next part of his training was to practice his archery. For this, he was sent out in the Darklands forest, trying to pick off any Koopa master archers trying to defeat him in battle. He learned not only to use his arching skills to a tee, but he also used his jumping and leaping and climbing skills as he used the trees for a height advantage as well as to hide from any Koopa archers that were aiming for him. "Well, Bowser's really throwing the kitchen sink at me," the ranger thought as he trying to complete his archer training. During this time, the Ranger had to camp outside as the Koopa archers were told not to hunt him during the night and continue only after a specific time, which the ranger knew so he would wake up thirty minutes before that. This training also allowed him to tinker with his arrow mechanics, as he working on blueprints for new arrow types before his invitation to come to the Darklands. He had been able to develop explosive and electric arrows, already adding to his arsenal of standard, fire, and poison arrows. He had more schematic ideas for new weapon types, but he didn't have enough time with the constant training preparation as well as getting his mind focused on the mission he would undertake after his training.

The final test that the Ranger would undertake would be his endurance test. He had to run around the border of the Darklands, while being pursued by Koopas, Goombas and other wild creatures of the Darklands and report back to the castle in less than 5 days. It tested his awareness, ability to withstand exhaustion and overall skills in fighting in swords and archery. In order for him not to sneak off the path and take shortcuts, electric fences were set up around the perimeter of where he was supposed to run which would only be triggered by the collar the Ranger wore. Since his pursuers did not wear collars, the electric fence would not be triggered by them and would not be harmed by it. While in his training, it was the first time he was able to stop for a little bit and was able to view the areas that surrounded the Darklands including Sarasaland, and the Mushroom Kingdom. "Those areas beautiful for sure," thought the Ranger, casting a small smile on his face and then pointed to the Mushroom Kingdom. "I'll be visiting you soon." He then continued on his mission, as to him this final test seemed relatively easy.

When he approached the castle Bowser, still in his human form, walked up to him and congratulated him. "You've done well my apprentice." He patted him on the back as he walked him back to the throne room. "It's now time for you to know what the plan is from now." Bowser led him back to the table, where now a few Koopa Officers where gathered, eager to hear what the details of the plan were going to encompass.

"Time to get some payback." Said one officer as the other Koopa officers echoed the same sentiments. The Ranger took his seat, as Bowser began by pulling out a photo of Toadstool Castle.

"Alright my young apprentice, this is Toadstool Castle, the living quarters of Princess Peach as well as the favorite destination for Princess Daisy. What we have to do may seem a little unorthodox for you because the hero types try to prevent this sort of thing. In order to draw the Mario brothers out, because they don't like when their control is broken up by someone or something, we have to stage a kidnapping of the Princesses." The ranger was taken aback by what Bowser had said; he would never thought in his dream he would have to play his part as a criminal.

"Do the Princesses know about this plot?" The ranger asked as Bowser just nodded his head.

"They know what must be done in order for our kingdoms to finally have peace again and away from the corruption of the Mario Brothers. They agreed to do this as long as we don't alert the citizens of our plan. They believe their panic and uncertainty of the plot would alert the Mario Brothers, punishing their kingdom even more. So, we must avoid the Town Square that the Mushroom Kingdom has at all costs. You will scale the rooftops and enter the attic of the Toadstool Castle right here." Bowser pointed to the tip of the castle from which there was a secret hatch leading to the main hall of the castle. "From there, you will guard the halls in case the Mario Brothers get there and try to stop us. From there our army will go through the main door and initiate the kidnapping. We will go from there once that stage is done. Everyone clear on our plot?" Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Excellent," Bowser said with a hidden wicked smile. "Then let's begin!"


	7. Infiltration

The Koopa Empire marched on its way to the Mushroom Kingdom, intending on starting the revenge for the destruction of their territory. The Ranger was told to stay in the trees and shadows of the Mushroom Kingdom. "Why do I have to do this?" Asked the ranger who seemed very discontent with having to stay out of sight, especially during the daytime where there wasn't any need to stay out of sight. "If the Mushroom Kingdom are their allies, I should be there as a representative of the Koopa Empire."

"Because of the toads," replied Bowser with an irritated tone. "As I have told you, the toads only contact with the humans has been met with sheer anger and injustice when the Mario Brothers came to this world. Thus, it would not be wise to show another human in the Mushroom Kingdom until we have liberated it from within. Trust in me my apprentice, I have thought of everything. " Bowser placed a communication device onto the Ranger's hand. "Contact me when you have made it to Toadstool castle undetected." He then placed a hand on the Ranger's shoulder as he bowed down in loyalty to Bowser as he took off to the trees. "And I have thought of everything," Bowser thought with a wicked grin upon his face. "You stupid kid." Bowser then told his troops to move out, careful not to pass the Town Square as they made their way to Toadstool Castle's grounds, only a few feet away from the stone bridge. He then gathered his troops as he prepared to tell how to go forward to the invasion. "Remember, my apprentice cannot know of our true intentions. So we have to play along with this friendly relationship I have with the Mushroom Kingdom." Bowser, in his human form, walked along the stone bridge alone. "Wait for my signal, when I say 'The Koopa Invasion has begun', that is when you come in." The Koopa troops waited in position until the signal was called out to invade the castle.

The Mushroom Kingdom had a tighter security protocol on before. More guards were enrolled into protecting the castle since the first invasion by the Koopa Empire. They were trained on how to deflect shell attacks from the Mario Brothers themselves as well as how to kill Goombas. The security was going to be tougher than the last time for Bowser to break, but he had confidence that he would have enough military strength to do it. Inside the castle, the lovely princesses Peach and Daisy were trying to send letters to their friends and, even if they didn't want to admit to anyone, their love interests. "It's going to be so nice to have the Mario Brothers over again." Said Peach as she had a small smile while trying to write her letter to Mario all on pink paper in red ink.

"I know, hopefully they aren't too nervous this time to be around us." Replied Daisy as she had a small smile while she finished her letter to Luigi in orange paper in green ink.

"You say the same thing every time, yet those results don't usually pan out." The girls both giggled as they sealed their letters, Peach's in a pink envelope and Daisy's in an orange envelope. They then turned the letters over to the royal mailman of the kingdom as he was getting ready to make his last delivery of the day. "Please give these letters to both Mario and Luigi. Thank you so much and you can take the rest of the day off after that. Have a great day sir." The mailman graciously bowed to both the princesses as he took off to the Mario Brother's house. When the mailman passed he saw Bowser, disguised as a human, who politely tipped his cap to him. Bowser did the same thing.

"That's right buy my con you stupid toad." Bowser though snickering to himself as he approached the castle doors. He then took out his communication device to make contact with the Ranger. "My apprentice, it is time to strike."

"Finally it's about time for some justice." The ranger replied equipping his bow. "Who's the target?"

"Not target, location. I need you to go to the hills of the back of the castle and then infiltrate the roof of the castle and enter that secret hatch. I'll make sure the princesses are ready as well."

"Yes sir." The ranger replied as he moved to the back of the castle, taking in the breathtaking exterior of Toadstool castle. "The castle is just as lovely as the princesses themselves." The ranger thought as he made his way to the foothills. When he did make it to the foothills he equipped his bow again. This time taking out an arrow that had an extremely long cord attached to the bow. He fired an arrow, it catching part of the extremely large and wide rooftop of the castle. He then pressed a button on his bow, allowing his bow to retract the cord, pulling the Ranger up to the rooftop. He took a few minutes to observe his surroundings as well as take advantage of the view that was set before him. "Maybe when this is over, I might want to check this Mushroom Kingdom out. Seems like a lovely town." He saw the Koopa troops, who looked like they were armed to fight the Kingdom. "Well, they seem to playing the part of staging a kidnapping." He then examined the rooftop until he found what he was looking for, the secret hatch that would lead him to the main hall of the castle. "Time to get this show on the road." He then went down the secret hatch, making his way to the area that he was supposed to be in.

"Excellent he's in. Now's time for me to act my part." Bowser thought as he knocked on the door, waiting for the princesses to respond. "Soon I will have my revenge."


	8. Kidnapped at Home

Bowser had knocked on the castle doors, anticipating to be either greeted by one of the servants of the castle or by Toadsworth. Instead, much to his surprise and to his delight, it was answered by Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Princess Peach, with a beautiful smile greeted Bowser not knowing that he was a human in disguise. "Greetings sir," Peach said while reaching out for Bowser's hand. "Can I help you with something sir?"

Bowser, in an attempt to play along with his disguise reached out for Peach's hand and shook it. "Yes you can. My name is Bowen and I have lived here in the Mushroom Kingdom for a couple of months, actually when the other humans showed up to defeat that Bowser fellow. Anyways I have terrible news that I wanted to deliver personally." Bowser's worried expression on his face was selling the point that it was urgent, as it made the princesses worry as well.

"Well…what news do you have to report?" Daisy asked as she came up to greet Bowser as well.

Bowser secretly turned on his communicator to the Koopa Army just a few feet away from the stone bridge, hidden in sight as he then prepared to give the signal. "Well, I live just outside the Town Square over there, as he pointed to the forest area. My house is in a secluded area in the forest, hidden from detection by any looters and such. Anyway I had looked out my window to notice that there was an unusually large concentration of Koopas gathering in the Mushroom Kingdom, carrying the banner of the Koopa Empire. My dear princesses, I don't know if I can be more certain of this, but for a second time the Koopa Invasion has begun." At that moment the Koopas marched on to the castle grounds, ready to invade the castle as well as meeting up the newly added defenses of Toadstool Castle.

"My dear Bowden," Peach said trying to reassure the human standing in front of her by putting a hand on "Bowden's" shoulder. "There is no way the Koopas could be attacking us anymore. Their leader, Bowser, has been dead for quite some time now and I'm certain without their leader the Koopas won't be able to atta- .WHAT IS THAT OVER THERE?!" Peach then pointed to the area just outside of the bridge as she noticed the large presence of a Koopa army.

"By order of the Koopa Empire," a Koopa army commander cried out. "We are taking out into our custody as Bowser has requested your presence for reasons unknown. If you do not comply, then we will be forced to invade your castle and take you by force."

"Why don't you get your turtle butts out of here before Mario and Luigi grind you up into fertilizer!" Daisy cried out raising her fist in defiance. The Koopa army didn't flinch at that remark as the army got closer and closer to the stone bridge.

"I take that statement as a refusal and as such, be prepared to be taken to the Darklands there by force. ARMY AT THE READY! CHARGE!" The Koopa army commanded as his troops marched to the stone bridge to meet the princesses. Peach and Daisy, having no other options took Bowden with them, accompanied by ten mushroom guards as they prepared to go down into the bunker where the Princesses would be safe. As that was happening one hundred guards made their way to the stone bridge to combat this new threat.

"I don't care if Bowser wants the princess," cried one of the mushroom guards, raining his pike high in the air. "There's no way you scum are getting anywhere close to that princess again." The mushroom guards lined up in ten lines of ten guards, and moved up to where the Koopa army was charging.

"That's what you think you dumb fools," thought the Koopa army commander, a wicked grin being cast upon his face. "If only you knew who the princesses just carried into their castle." They met up with the guards on the stone bridge and engaged in a massive fight. At first, the mushroom guards had the edge as the moves that they were taught by the Mario Brothers were working. The upper lines of the Koopa Army were being decimated as severe Koopa and Goomba causalities were piling up quickly early, not being able to penetrate the first line of the Mushroom Guard. Then, realizing the guard was slow with their pikes being a weapon ordered the archers to take aim at them, hoping that their mobility would be their downfall. "READY, AIM, FIRE!" The Koopa archers cast their bows, killing most of the Guard within seconds. The commander's initial plan was working. He then allowed the Koopa swordsmen to finish the job as they hacked away the rest of the Mushroom Guard, leaving the entrance to the castle open for them to swarm in and invade. "MOVE OUT, WE ARE OSCAR MIKE!" The Koopa troops entered the castle, capturing any servant and forcing them to take residence in the dungeon with the soon to be kidnapped princesses. "Let's see the Mario Brothers try to stop us now." The Koopa commander thought as he had his army rest, waiting for the next step in Bowser's plan.

Meanwhile the commotion taking place out was well heard by the princesses who, fearing for their lives, allowed Bowden to take residence in the bunker with them as going back upstairs would not be safe for him. "I would just like to thank you for allowing me to take part in your company as we try to get ourselves out of this sticky situation."

"No problem Bowden," Peach replied as the three of them were being hurriedly rushed to the bunker by the Mushroom Guard. "I'm just glad you were able to tell us of the upcoming invasion. I'm sure that fool Bowser or his cronies won't be able to find us down here."

"That's what you think princess," Bowser thought as he had to restrain himself from casting out a malicious laugh or a wicked grin. "But I got you exactly where I want you, down in a trap where I can keep a close eye on you."

As the three of them got down to the bunker, the mushroom guard locked the doors, not allowing people to get in or out of the room. With this in mind, Bowden approached all of the guards in the bunker room still in his human form. "Gentlemen," Bowser said who was still in the Bowden disguise. "I believe you have done something you might have regretted against that fearful Koopa Empire. In which that you sprung a trap for their glorious leader." Before the Mushroom Guard could react, Bowser shed off his human disguise, revealing his true form as well as quickly and effectively disposing the guards there with his fire breath and his brute strength. After a quick minute, the guards protecting the princesses were gone. "Hmm," Bowser thought as he looked at the dead corpses. "Nothing like a little combat practice to help get me back in the swing of things." He then turned to the princesses, who had mixes of confusion with anger and fear. "Welcome to your new prison. TOADSTOOL CASTLE!" Bowser then let out a huge cackle, terrifying the princesses even more.


	9. Power Stars

Bowser forced Daisy and Peach into separate cages, locking the cage doors once they were inside. The cages were comfortable enough for Daisy and Peach to move around a bit and lay down, but the idea of being Bowser's prisoners ticked them off considering the facts that they had been Bowser's prisoners once before and they were prisoners in their own home. "What do you want you miserable excuse for a king?" questioned Peach, angry and upset she was in this cage.

Bowser slowly walked up to Peach's cage, his face very close to her face, scaring her a bit as she was unsure what he was going to do with him, with an evil grin upon Bowser's face. "Tell you what. I have a deal that you princesses might be happy with. I will let you go from your cages right now. I'll leave your kingdom and go back to rebuilding mine, which was destroyed no thanks to YOU or YOUR HEROES!" Bowser becoming angry as thoughts of the attack was slowly coming back to him.

_Flashback 6 months ago_

_Bowser looked out of his castle window in his throne room. The princesses were stuck in the cages that he had in the throne room when he moved them out of the dungeon. Bowser could see into the distance that fires were blazing out of control, in the locations of where his villages that the Koopas and Goombas. "My loyal subjects," Bowser thought as a few tears were coming out of his eye, making sure that the princesses could not see them by looking away from them. At a sheer moment of anger and sadness, he loudly roared, startling the princesses and was barely audible enough for the Mario Brothers to hear._

_End of Flashback_

"Because of that day, a lot of my people died. My villages destroyed, and my craving for revenge growing each and every day that I had to recover from my injuries. The burns went away, the mental scars are still there, but I am able to let them go now that I have two." Bowser then stepped away and grabbed a book that he was holding, containing the secrets to the Power Stars.

"Serves you right." Daisy said, causing Bowser's attention to be drawn to her. "If you didn't kidnap us in the first place, then maybe your kingdom would be left alone. It was your stupid plan that got you the way you were then, and it's your stupid plan that is going to get you burned again." Bowser's fists were clenched as he approached, the angry expression on his face was clear as Daisy didn't back down. "If you think you're going to shut me up, you've got another thing comi-"Bowser than punched Daisy in the face, knocking her out cold for a few hours.

"DAISY!" Peach cried as tears came to her eyes, realizing that her best friend had been hurt badly by Bowser. Her expression of sadness then turned to anger at Bowser. "You piece of sh-"Peach thought about what she was going to say before realizing she didn't want Bowser's rage to be induced upon her. "Look just tell me what you want."

"I never thought you would ask." Bowser than turned his book to the page regarding the Power Stars. "Look, I'll let you two go right now if you could just tell me where the Power Stars are as I need them to advance my Koopa Empire's own endeavors and I know you would like me out of here as fast as possible."

"What do you need with those?" questioned Peach as she looked towards a switch. A familiar switch she had installed some time earlier with the intention of being pressed just in case she had fallen into this situation with Bowser.

"Does it matter?" replied Bowser as he grew impatient with Peach's questioning. "I want them, you want out. So just tell me where they are?"

Peach then began to think of Bowser's proposal before finally making a decision off of that. "I have a duty to protect my citizens," Peach thought as she again looked to the switch she saw a few seconds ago. "It's about time to start doing that, no matter what the cost." Peach then sighed and cleared her throat, getting Bowser's attention. "Ok Bowser you win, the Power stars are over there." Peach then pointed to a chest in a corner of the room that was attached to a pipe, which Bowser thought was strange but paid no attention to it as he would get a chance to acquire the stars he would need for his impending victory.

"Wise choice Princess." Bowser said as he opened the chest to reveal the Power Stars, which were so bright as Bowser had to look away for a second before looking back at them. "They're so beautiful, so bright, and so powerful." Bowser thought with an evil grin on his face as he was getting his hand out to reach them.

"Of course," Peach replied, getting Bowser's attention back towards her. "I don't negotiate with terrorists." Peach then pressed a switch near her cage which caused the pipe to start erupting loud sucking noises, much to Bowser's dismay.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Bowser as he saw the stars being sucked out of the chest and into the pipe, into various destinations all over the castle. "This can't be," Bowser thought as he saw all of the stars leaving the chest leaving it empty and dark. His expression turned to that of anger as he ran up to Peach's cage, seeing a smirk placed on her face. "Where are those stars you miserable excuse for a princess?" Bowser was shaking all over, realizing that without him, the chance for revenge would be much less successful without those power stars.

Peach stood up from her cage and looked at her captor. "You want the stars, go find them. In the meantime, you can BITE ME!" With that last statement she spit in Bowser's face, hitting him in the eye, causing him to get more angry. He then punched Peach in the face, causing her to be knocked out cold. He then turned over to the room, seeing if there were any hints that could tell him where she would have kept the Power Stars. As he was exploring the room, he couldn't happen to noticed that the bunker room just composed of approximately 15 small scale paintings of random creatures or scenery that he happened to notice spotting when he had first entered the castle. "The paintings," he murmured as he got an idea on his face. "That's where they have hidden the damn Power Stars."

The Ranger had finally made it down to the main hall of the castle, taking in the scenery of the interior of the castle. He also happened to notice signs of a skirmish taking place. "Guess they took the whole staging the kidnapping thing pretty seriously for both parties." He thought as he took out his communicator to talk with Bowser, to reveal that he had successfully infiltrated the castle. "Bowser, I have successfully infiltrated the castle and I am awaiting your orders."

Bowser took out his communicator, making sure his voice was ready to imitate that of the human master that he appeared to be in front of The Ranger. "Good job my apprentice, now this next part is going to be real tricky." Bowser then looked at some of the schematics of the castle, revealing that there were 2 looked doors of the castle that could be opened only by key. As he pondered where he would like to put the unconscious princesses now that they were his captives, he realized that he needed the Ranger to guard his keys as fighting the Mario Brothers singly handedly without the Power Stars would cause significant damage to the revenge he do desperately wanted against them as he was not ready yet to face them. "Do you see anything that happens to be two big keys to the castle?"

The Ranger looked around the main hall until he happened to see two big keys that were left unguarded in the skirmish since the attention at that time was for the safety of the two princesses and fighting off the Koopa army outside. "Yeah I see them. What do you want me to do with them?"

"Hold on to them." Bowser replied looking at the two princesses. "We need to protect them from the Mario Brothers as I move the princesses to a safer location on the upper floors of the main castle. Unlock the doors that those keys go to for now, and then I and my troops will lock them once everyone had made it to the areas of the castle that they are assigned. Then, go and wait somewhere that the Mario Brothers will have to find first in order to advance through the castle."

"It will be done master." The Ranger then unlocked both the doors that the keys went into, labeled them to make sure which keys were which, then proceeded to find a nice spot to wait until the Mario Brothers showed up to his doorstep. The Ranger looked and looked until he passed by a big red door with a star painted on it. "This looks like the place," he thought. He stepped inside the door and proceeded to venture forth into it, seeing where the door would take him.


	10. Our Heroes Emerge

The postman went made it to the Mario Brothers house, which was a few miles away from Toadstool Castle. Because of this, he did not hear the skirmish that was taking place during his trip. "Hope these boys enjoy their letters," said the mailman approaching the steps to the Mario Brothers house. "The princesses seem to be quite fond of them." The mailman knocked on the door several attempts until Mario finally arose out of his bed and approached the mailman. "Good day Mario. I have a letter for both you and Luigi from the princesses." The mailman smiled as he delivered the letters to him.

"Thank you good sir. But isn't it a little too early to deliver the mail. It must be ten'o clock or something around that time." Mario then yawned, indicating he was still tired and ready to continue the sleep he was in since last night.

"Very funny Mario. But it's actually two in the afternoon. Have a good day sir." The mailman then went on his merry way, happy that he got the rest of the day off, unaware that if he went back to the castle, he would have seen the kidnapping of the princesses and the battle that took place.

"Mama Mia I overslept." Mario thought as he went inside, placing the letters on the nearby countertop in the kitchen as he went to wake Luigi up from his slumber. "Guess we had too much fun last night." The new Mario Brother's house was much roomie and bigger compared to the apartment they had in Brooklyn. They also didn't have the landlord or complaining tenants to deal with since it was a house altogether with no neighbors within a couple of miles. Ever since their last adventure, they had been goofing off and having fun like they did as kids, or spending their time with the lovely princesses who had been close friends with them for the past two months. In the back of their minds though, both Mario and Luigi wanted that to change as they yearned to have something more with them. "I wonder what Peach has sent me." Was all that Mario could think about as thoughts of Peach swam in his head all at once. He then approached Luigi's room, who was still asleep. He wanted to play a prank on Luigi and so he went to the kitchen. He grabbed a bucket, put some water in it, and then ran up to Luigi's room. He then poured the water all over Luigi, causing him to fall out of his bed with Mario saying "WAKE UP LUIGI!" really loud which startled him.

"MARIO!" yelled Luigi upset with the fact he was soaked in water as well as his bed. "Why did you do that?"

Mario looked at Luigi with a sheepish grin. "I thought it would be funny and it was." Mario chuckled to himself for a good while, much to Luigi's chagrin.

"Well whatever. What time is it?" Mario then pointed to the clock in his room, which Luigi read indicating that it was two in the afternoon. "I overslept. But when we were plumbing we always would wake up early and…oh right we're heroes."

"Yeah, we get a few liberties now that we're heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom. Now come downstairs, there's a letter for you from Princess Daisy."

"Ok, be down in a minute." Mario went to his room to get changed into his regular clothes, while Luigi said the same thing, desiring the fact he was going to get out of his soaked pajamas. "I wonder what Daisy sent me." He thought as he now had thoughts of Daisy swimming in his mind. After changing, both brothers went downstairs as they went to go get their letters from the princesses.

The letter sent to Mario was given to him in a pink envelope and addressed to Mario with a heart taking place of the dot in the i written in red ink. Mario opened the envelope and proceeded to read the letter.

Dear Mario,

Please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. Yours truly

Princess Toadstool (Peach)

"She's so thoughtful." Thought Mario holding the letter, thinking about holding Peach's hand when he would get over to the castle. "Today's the day…I have to try otherwise I won't know whether I will succeed or fail."

The letter sent to Luigi was giving to him in an orange envelope and addressed to Luigi with a heart taking place of the dot in the i written in green ink. Luigi opened the envelope and proceeded to read the letter.

Dear Luigi,

Please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. Yours truly

Princess of Sarasaland (Daisy)

"What a woman." Luigi thought who was completely smitten with Daisy. "I've got to find the nerve right now when I get there to ask her out. It's time I've faced one of my fears."

Luigi and Mario both looked at each other, as they both knew what the other was going to say. "LET'S A GO!" And just like that, the Mario Brothers took off, eager to spend today with the princesses, just like it was going to be any other day.

Meanwhile back at Toadstool Castle, Bowser had exited from the bunker due to a secret elevator he had discovered in the bunker, allowing him entrance into the main hall. Since the Ranger was undergoing his own voyage behind the big Red Star door, Bowser could freely be in his true form without discovery by the Ranger. In both arms were both Peach and Daisy, still knocked out from the heavy blows he had dealt them previously, but he knew they would stir up pretty soon. "I've got to hurry and set myself up." Bowser thought as he carried the princesses up the stairs into the upper part of the castle, which the Ranger had unlocked before venturing forward. Before doing so, Bowser wanted all the attention of the Koopas and Goombas that were in the main hall. "Go into every painting and find those blasted stars. If you find the plumbers, stall them or eliminate them if you can. I got to prepare for their arrival." With that Bowser closed the door behind him, locked it and proceeded to the upper portion of the castle. The Koopa troops themselves went into the paintings that Bowser assigned them to, and waited patiently for the arrival of the Mario Brothers.


	11. A Mission of Love

The Mario Brothers cut across Town Square, which seemed to be calm since reports of an invasion at Toadstool Castle didn't come through to them, in order to get to Toadstool Castle. When the Mario Brothers had made it to the castle grounds, they had an eerie feeling creep up to them as they came closer and closer to the stone bridge. "We should have been approaching more guards Luigi," Mario said looking around the castle to sense any incoming danger that might have awaited them. "It wouldn't make sense to have the castle vulnerable from the outside especially since the kidnapping that took place a few months ago."

"Maybe they are on a day off?" Luigi replied scratching his head in confusion as well.

The Mario Brothers approached the castle entrance and knocked at the door, expecting Toadsworth to come any second to open it and relieve them of their worries. When ten minutes expired, the Mario Brothers grew worried since it would never take this long for the Toadstool castle staff to open the door for their invited guests. "I don't think they are on a day off Luigi, and I don't think this castle is safe either." Mario sternly said as he kicked open the door, allowing Mario and Luigi to enter the castle. "Put your fire flower on." Mario and Luigi put on their fire flower outfit, ready to approach any enemies ready to test their combat skills. Suddenly, when they made their first few steps into the castle, their worst fears were confirmed. On patrol in the main hall were ten Koopa troops, and their attention was turned to the Mario Brothers who they knew as the scourge of the Darklands.

"I'm going to enjoy this," said one of the Koopa troops putting his blade up. "Attack my brethren and let's put an end to the 'heroes'." After a few minutes of fighting, the Koopa troops were slain, allowing Mario and Luigi to rest.

Suddenly they heard a loudspeaker come on from one of the many corners of the castle, which was being controlled by Bowser, who had made it to the highest interior part of the castle, who had successfully caged up Peach and Daisy again. "Welcome Mario Brothers," said Bowser, making the Mario Brothers angry that he had successfully taken control of Toadstool Castle so far. "No one's home! Now scram and don't come back. Unless you want to start a war that you can't finish this time. Not with what I got in store for you." Bowser let out an evil laugh as he turned off the loudspeaker.

Mario, with anger in his eyes as well as his tears clenched his fists as he looked at the loudspeaker. "He has Peach." He thought as Bowser was ruining his chances to tell Peach how he felt about her.

Luigi, with even more tears also was quite angry while thinking about what Daisy was going through now that she was in Bowser's clutches again. "He has Daisy." He could only think as Bowser was ruining his chances to tell Daisy how he felt.

"Luigi," Mario said with a serious tone as he pulled his cap down to not reveal the tears in his eyes. "Let's a go kick Bowser's as-"Mario tried to calm himself down while he was talking and Luigi could feel the pain in his voice. He gave his brother a bro hug, allowing his brother to secretly let go of a few more tears as he felt better with vengeance still in his heart.

"Mario I know how you feel." Luigi felt as he let go of his brother, allowing both themselves to regain their composure in anticipation for the fights that were in store for them. "He has my- I mean our princesses." His mind was still in Daisy as he tried to shake him off. "But we got to stay in the game and just do our best to focus on taking down Bowser and whatever else he has in store for us."

"I understand what you are saying Luigi," Mario said who sounded much better than what he was a few minutes ago. "But you remember how our last fight ended with Bowser. We killed him Luigi, we threw him into that fire pit. There is no way he should have survived."

"True evil never dies does it?" Luigi replied.

"I guess not bro. I also guess that he may be stationed up behind that door." Mario then pointed at the door that was at the top of the stairs. "Let's go see if we can't rattle Bowser's shell some more." Luigi then just gave a silent nod as they made their way to the door. When they tried opening it, they realized that the door was locked. Mario tried burning the door down with his fire power up, but it did not do anything. "They probably installed fireproof doors in order to keep people like Bowser out."

The loudspeaker came on again, revealing that Bowser was going to speak to the Mario Brothers again. "Now you didn't think it was going to be that easy to reach me and save your precious princesses did you?" Bowser then let out a short cackle, angering the Mario Brothers again who still tried to made the door budge with all their might. "You could try all you want to break open that door. But it's locked with a few keys that you need to find, and I apparently have forgotten where I placed them. Guess you have to find them yourselves. I'll deal with you pests later. Unless my exterminator gets you first." Bowser then shut down the loudspeaker, ending with another evil laugh.

"What did he mean by 'his exterminator'?" Luigi pondered as he sat down on the stairs to decide what their next move should be.

"I don't know Luigi." Mario replied sitting next to his brother. "But what I do know is that we are stuck until we find those keys that we need to access Bowser's hideout." Mario then looked around the main hall of the castle, not bothering to enter the kitchen, lounge room, or outside sports courts as both Mario Brothers knew that it would not get them anywhere. Mario then saw a big red door with a star on it. "Hey Luigi, come check this out." Both Mario brothers made their way to the big red star door, which was conveniently located a few feet away to the left of the door that they needed to get into in order to face Bowser.

"What do you think it is?" Luigi asked touching the red star door, trying to see if he could find a handle or a switch to open the door.

"I don't know. But I want to open the door too, unless Bowser locked this door down as well. OPEN DOOR!" The door did nothing.

" Open SESAME!" yelled Luigi with the same response from the door.

"Please open the door." Insisted Mario with the same result.

The loudspeaker came on again, with Bowser's laughter indicating how idiotic the brothers were getting. "That red star won't open to you just because you are heroes of the mushroom kingdom. That star is locked with something called star power. In order to unlock it, you need to have a couple of power stars on your person. But since you don't that door is staying locked until then. Goodbye scum." The loudspeaker again was shut off, confusing the Mario Brothers once again by giving them more questions than answers.

"How did Bowser do all of this?" Mario questioned.

"I don't know." Luigi replied as the brothers went downstairs as they searched for something that Bowser called a Power Star. They had searched every single room that was unlocked for them with no luck in obtaining the Power Stars that they were looking for. "Oh man, we're never going to save the princesses and I won't be able to tell Daisy how I feel about her." Tears came from Luigi's eyes who wasn't embarrassed to cry in front of his brother whenever he needed him.

Mario then went to his brother in order to comfort him. "Hey don't talk like that. We have to stay determined. Daisy wouldn't want you to give up on her just like Peach wouldn't want me to give up on her. Now come on, I know there's way to find out what we are looking for. We just got to remain vigilant." Luigi stood back up and regained his composure.

"Thanks Mario."

"No problem Luigi."

All of a sudden, they heard a wounded Mushroom Kingdom guard utter out their names. "Mario…Luigi…over here." Mario and Luigi rushed over to the Toad guard, whose wounds didn't look promising from the skirmish that took place what seemed like hours ago.

"What happened here?" Mario asked, trying his best to put pressure on his wound, with not much success.

"It…was horrible…Koopas invaded…Princesses rushed to bunker followed by human…"

"Wait did you say human?" Luigi asked, scratching his head in confusion to the fact that Bowser could have been mistaken as a human.

"Human was…just disguise…Bowser himself…kidnapped princesses…princesses issued…emergency protocol."

"What emergency protocol?" Mario asked. The guard had coughed up more blood before being able to speak again.

"In bunker…contains important…very important things…Power Stars…"

"Where are those Power Stars?" Luigi asked shaking the guard controllably, only stopping when Mario put his hand on his shoulder, allowing Luigi to calm down again. The guard has coughed up more blood just from the shaking before speaking again.

"We put them…in paintings…six stars…fifteen paintings each…"

"Paintings?" questioned Mario, not seeing the concept behind placing them inside the actual paintings.

"Paintings are…openings to other worlds…" The Mario Brothers looked at the guard like he had 2 heads as he thought he was delirious from the loss of blood and his inevitable fate. "You should...be the first…to open yourselves to the idea…you didn't think the mushroom kingdom existed…" The guard let out a short chuckle. Mario and Luigi wanted to say something, but ended up giving him sheepish grins, indicating that the guard had a point. "Look…don't worry about me…just promise me…princesses safe…I believe in…in…you heroes…ho-hope…" The guard then died on the spot, with Mario closing his eyes, with both brothers giving him a silent farewell.

"I guess we have our answer then," Mario said with a sad look on his face after seeing the young toad die. "But the question is to where exactly where we begin."

"I don't know…" Luigi thought as he tried to remember which painting to him looked like candidates for possible worlds. Then Luigi remembered a particular conversation he had with Mario

_Flashback five days ago_

"_Those paintings in the castle were quite detailed weren't they?" Mario replied changing into his pajamas getting ready to retreat into his room_

_ Yeah I guess Mario, but why do you ask?" Luigi questioned, wondering why Mario would bring up such a random thought._

_ "I don't know," Mario replied yawning from exhaustion. "I guess I felt that the paintings were almost real, like you could jump into them and be put in a different world. I'm a going to bed. Goodnight Luigi."_

_End of flashback_

"Wait a minute. MARIO!" Luigi yelled, startling his brother with a such a sudden change in the volume of his voice.

"Geez Luigi," Mario said while putting his finger in his ear, making a joke that Luigi made him deaf in one ear. "What is it?"

"Remember the conversation you had with me the last when you said you remember the painting almost felt real?" Mario nodded slowly in confusion to what he was thinking. "Could you take me to one that you remember?" The Mario Brothers made their way over to one room. It was a room with not much valuables inside, whether they were taken by Bowser, or was just a storage room. However, it did contain one painting, one with three bob-ombs marching in line like they were soldiers.

"You think this is one of those 'worlds'?" asked Mario as Luigi nodded in response. "Well I hope you're right. Guess it can't hurt to find out, other than a bruised head and a bruised ego." The Mario brothers than ran up to the painting and jumped into it, entering inside the new world that they found.


	12. Bob-Omb Battlefield

After a few seconds, the Mario Brothers fell into what seemed to be another world, composed of a battle between two different kinds of bob-ombs, pink bob-ombs and black bob-ombs. "Where the hel- are we Luigi?" Mario asked standing up slowly to get his surrounding into the world that we fell in.

"I don't know," Luigi replied who also got up slowly to also gather his surroundings. "But it doesn't look like we are in Toadstool Castle anymore."

"No shi- Sherlock." The Mario Brothers walked a bit to where some of the constant battle was taking place and came across some pink bob-ombs. The pink bob-ombs saw the humans approaching them and three of them walked over to them.

"Halt." Ordered one of the bob-ombs temporarily ceasing motion from the heroes. "Just who exactly are you?"

"I'ma Mario." Mario said while taking his cap off and bowing down to the pink bob-ombs in front of where they were standing.

"I'ma Luigi." Luigi said while taking his cap off and bowing down to the pink bob-ombs as well.

The pink bob-ombs huddled over to each other. "So these must be the guys looking to deal with our problem." They then turned their backs to the heroes to look at the devastation from their land due to the black bob-ombs and even saw some of their enemies, looking at them glaringly for taking some of their home territory away. It didn't make things better that the new allies the black bob-ombs had were just as cunning and devious as them. "No kidding. This war has gone on long enough." The pink bob-ombs then turned back to face the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom. "Heroes, we need your help. This war we have had with the black bob-ombs has taken a toll on our people as well as our land."

The Mario Brothers looked at each other and knew what they had to do. While the mission to them was important, doing their best to help other people was also in their blood especially when they were plumbers back in Brooklyn. "We'll accept. What do you need us to do?"

The bob-ombs looked up at the hill where the main source of the threat was located, the one thing that kept this war from ending. "We need you to put down the King of the Black Bob-Ombs. He's located at the top of the hill to the northwest of us. I warn you, this guy's tough."

"So have the creatures we have already faced." Said the Mario Brothers in unison, showing the heroic confidence that the heroes have shown from their first adventure.

"Alright," said the pink bob-ombs as they turned back to their camp to deal with their situation in terms of handling their men. "We will be at this camp if you need us, or if you bring us good news." The Mario Brothers and the pink bob-ombs parted ways as the brothers set forth to the hill to deal with the Bob-Omb King.

"You really think we should be helping them?" Luigi asked as the Mario Brothers went up a wooden bridge overlooking more devastation from what seemed to be caused by black bob-omb explosions.

"I don't know," replied Mario as they turned to face a battalion of black bob-ombs and Koopa troops. "But remember this isn't our world so it doesn't hurt to help them as it won't affect Toadstool Castle. It also looks like we have a fight on our hand right now." Mario and Luigi activated their fire flower power-ups as they faced their adversaries.

"Give it up Plumbers." Said one of the Koopa Troops drawing his blade. "You're overmatched. Even if you do defeat us, you're going to be facing more odds than you ever dreamed of if you want to save the princesses."

"We'll see about that." Mario said ready to cast a fire spell. He then turned to face Luigi to go over their battle strategy. "Aim for the bob-ombs. I think they are able to be destroyed easily with our fire." Luigi nodded in agreement as he was thinking the same thing as well. The Mario Brothers then drew their flames to two separate black bob-ombs who then moved around uncontrollably trying to get the flames out of their heads. They then inflated to the size of cannonballs and exploded, taking out several Koopa Troops in the process.

After several minutes, the army they had faced went down in defeat. However, their skirmish had awakened one of the Bob-Omb's most revered pets that they used to ward off the pink bob-ombs, a chained up Chain Chomp. It was as big as a one story house with good movement via his jumping ability as well as razor sharp teeth. Mario knew all he had to do was run to the other side just in time before the Chain chomp was able to leap at him because of the delay in his reaction to launch itself at someone when the Chain Chomp saw a potential target. Mario motioned Luigi to follow him as soon as he took off. He put three fingers on his hand and counted down until he had one finger left. They then took off to the other side of the Chain Chomp pen, with the Chain Chomp eyeing the Mario Brother in its sight. It got ready to pounce and leaped at the Mario Brothers, but he was too late as they escape and the chained pull him back to the center at the pen, as it put its head down in defeat and failure to secure the heroes as its potential snacks. The Mario Brothers stopped to rest for a second, happy that they were able to make it to the other side successfully.

Mario then stood up ready to take on the next challenge. "Alright time to get up Luigi. We have to a king to dethrone."

"Oh yeah I forgot about that." Luigi said as he got back up and got to the next challenge they had to face.

On the top of the hill stood the Bob-Omb King. He looked as big as a Chain Chomp although he was very nimble. He had yellow shows on his feet and had legs that were smaller than a human's leg, but bigger than the troops he commanded. He had a big white mustache with big white eyes, big hands, and a big crown on the top of head. He walked over to the edge of the hill where he stood down, and saw the Mario Brothers as they approached their way to the hill, knowing full well they had to take down a considerable army to reach this point in their journey. "Who are these peasants trying to take me down?" Asked the King in thought as he went to summon one of his subjects. "No matter I'll deal with them soon enough." The King then ordered the subject to prepare the traps for the Mario Brothers as he then got ready for an inevitable fight that was going to take place.

All of a sudden, the Mario Brothers heard an alarm coming from the hill, and then an assortment of traps for them to face. "Great…just great." Mario thought as he saw the first trap that approached them, which consisted of five boulders rolling in a small pit that blocked their way in getting into a gate that would allow the Mario Brothers to enter their base. "Alright let's do this Luigi." Mario than ran up towards to the pit, ready to evade the boulders and penetrate their base.

"Right…" replied Luigi as both Mario Brothers dodged their boulders and successfully made it to the entrance of the King Bob-Omb's base . They then overcame even more boulders, bob-omb powered cannons, the occasional Koopa archer, and several pit jumps in order to make it to the top of the hill in order to face the Bob-Omb King himself.

"Well…well…well." Said the Bob-Omb King looking rather cocky against the Mario Brothers. "I'm surprised you were able to get this far. I guess it doesn't matter, you are trespassing against the great King of the Bob-Omb's territory and I order you to surrender yourselves and I will spare your lives. You do anything else, and I will be forced to perform my own execution of you two."

"Big words from someone who could get blown up pretty easily." Luigi said as he shot a fireball towards the Bob-Omb King, which didn't seem to do anything to him.

"Unfortunately for you two. Unlike my troops, I am actually immune to any fire attacks performed against me. If you want to take me down, you're going to have to fight with your brute strength, or lack thereof." The King then laughed in the direction of the Mario Brothers.

"Enough talk king. Your reign's coming to an end." Mario then charged at the King, which allowed him to perform one swoop from his hand, and sent Mario flying towards the other edge of the top of the hill. Mario quickly climbed up, wiping away the dirt that was on his face.

"Please," the king said while getting into a fighter stance. "It's going to take more than a weakling like yourself to beat me."

"Then let me provide the extra firepower." Luigi replied as he stood face to face with the Bob-Omb King. The Bob-Omb King tried to perform a swing with his fist toward Luigi, but dodged that successfully. As Mario stirred up, he was able to sneak around the edge of the hill while avoiding the attention of the Bob-Omb King. While Luigi dodged another punch from the King, Luigi went straight for the King's jaw, which caused the King to flinch in pain, getting him really angry at Luigi.

"You think I'm going to let a little whelp BEAT ME!" I' DON'T THINK SO!" The King said as his attacks increased in speed, giving Luigi a little more difficulty in dodging these attacks. While the King's attention was focused on Luigi, Mario was able to go behind the King, and lift his body up to the point where the King was startled by this sudden move. "Huh what's going in here?" the King demanded as now both Luigi and Mario both lifted the King up and threw him on the ground. The King himself felt a tingling in his body, indicating that the fuse was lit inside him and was about to explode. "I don't believe this. My reign, my power, it's all coming to an end-" The King then exploded revealing that he has the six power stars under his possession. Luigi and Mario then grabbed the power stars happy that they made their first steps into recovering the power stars that they needed.

"We did it bro!" cried Luigi in excitement while Mario was a bit more level headed, although he was excited about this development.

"We sure did," replied Mario as the Mario Brothers made it back towards the pink Bob-Omb camp. "However, the journey is far from over man." Luigi silently nodded . When they got back to the pink bob-omb camp, they were very happy to see that the Mario Brothers had returned, with expressions of victory on their face. "My pink friends," Mario said giving the leader of the Pink Bob-Ombs the fallen King's crown. "The Black Bob-Ombs will no longer be a problem for you."

The Pink Bob-Ombs were happy to see that the King was no more and celebrated for the victory that the Mario Brothers had given them. After the little celebration, the Mario Brothers waved goodbye to their new friends as they exited the world and ended back at Toadstool Castle, with the emptiness still lingering in the air.

"One down, fourteen to go." Said Luigi as Mario joined him in a silent nod.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's a go get the next one?" Mario then directed to the next painting that Mario thought looked familiar as he directed Luigi to another room that contained a picture of a little fortress in the sky. They then jumped in, and prepared for their next adventure.


	13. Whomp's Fortress

The Mario Brothers soon found themselves stumbling into what appeared to be the outside of a fortress. The fortress was levitating in air, so one misstep from the brothers could send them on a free falling journey for what could be their deaths. Although the shock of entering another world dissipated quickly as they just wanted to get on with their mission.

"So what's the plan this time Mario?" questioned Luigi trying hard not to look by the fence that kept the brothers from falling off the edge of the fortress and into the nothingness below. Mario looked around for a big until he saw what seemed to be the top of the fortress.

"I think we should concentrate for the top of the fortress." The Mario brothers first challenge was to attempt to navigate the platforms that lay below them in order to get to the other side of the fortress. The problem was that they kept alternating between being there and retracting into the fortress itself. So bad timing for the Mario Brothers will lead to certain doom for them. Mario went first since he was the oldest and Luigi watched his brother time his jumps successfully in order to make it across to the other side. Luigi then performed his own attempt to successfully do it, and by the time he made it to the last platform and jumped he unfortunately jumped too short to make it across.

"MARIO!" yelled Luigi as he realized he was descending into the endless bottom below. Luckily, Mario had grabbed his hand just in the nick of time in order to pull Luigi into the platform below.

"Gotya bro!" yelled Mario as he pulled Luigi into the platform with him. Luigi then rested for a second, attempting to calm down for a bit.

"Phew that was close," Luigi said, trying to slow down his breathing. "For a second or two, I thought I was a goner." The Mario brothers collected themselves as they approached the next part of the fortress that was complete with thwomps traps spread all over the second floor of the fortress. They were easily avoided by the Mario Brothers as they then came across a strange creature that was blocking their way from progressing. It looked to be a cross between a piranha and a plant that Luigi would sometimes grow in the garden of the Mario Brother's home.

"What the heck is that thing?" Luigi questioned as he tried to approach the creature very carefully as it seemed to be sleeping, making the brothers' presence unnoticed.

"I don't know a Piranha plant…" replied Mario also confused as to what exactly this creature was actually called. As Luigi approached it, the piranha plant woke up and started to reach for Luigi's hand trying to bite it, causing Luigi to flinch and retreat back to Mario's position.

"I don't care what that thing is," cried Luigi who started to get a little tense from almost losing his hand to that creature. "Let's burn that thing." Mario and Luigi activated their firepower up and burned up the Piranha plant, triggering an alarm for the fortress, which alerted the Koopa troops and the Whomps guarding the fortress to their presence.

"When don't we ever trip the alarm?" asked Luigi in sarcasm as he got ready for another fight on their hands.

"Well if we didn't," Mario replied in a cocky tone. "Then things would be too easy for us heroes, and then anyone could do this job."

"Guess you're right about that. Well I'm in a mood for busting some Koopa tail anyway." The Mario brothers than took to battle as they ravaged through Koopa troop after Koopa troop, easily burning them away. The Whomps, who looked like really tall cement blocks with feet and hands and a rather unpleasant face to look like with big red eyes and a mouth with unsightly teeth. The big advantage for them with dealing for the Mario brothers were that they were impervious to fire, making the job of taking them down difficult for the heroes. However, the Whomp's only attack against the Mario Brothers was that they could only do a dive move to them, which left their backside incredibly exposed. Taking advantage of that opportunity, Mario decided to do a jump in the air, and slam his gluteus maximum right on the back of the Whomp, which caused it to crack apart and disintegrate it into tiny pieces.

"So that's how you kill a Whomp Luigi," Mario said with a confident grin. "Hope you were taking notes." Luigi just briefly stuck his tongue out at Mario as they continued to ascend the top of the fortress, taking out any Koopa troops and Whomps along the way. When they got to the top of the fortress, they were approached by a rather huge Whomp who seemed to be the leader of the force that was trying to eliminate them.

"So you're the two that have been trying to take down my fortress. No matter, I will soon have you two eliminated and I can get right back to work assuming my dominance on this area."

"Hey I got a question big guy." Luigi said as he approached the huge Whomp, getting an angry glare from it. "What exactly are you ruling here? This is just a floating fortress. Are you trying to rule the air or something along that line?"

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE PEST!" yelled the Whomp as it tried to do its diving attack on Luigi. Luigi dodged in time as Mario then did a ground pound on it, causing a little pain to be uttered from the Whomp king, but got back up quickly. "As you can see, I am not as weak as the army you have faced thus far. There is a reason they call me the WHOMP KING!" After a few more attempts for Mario and Luigi to bring the huge Whomp King down. "No…my empire…this alliance…was supposed to …help me." The Whomp King then disintegrated, revealing the six power stars he had kept away from the Mario Brother's possession. They then took the stars and exited the fortress via the warp point hey used to enter the world in the first place.

"Alliance?" asked Mario as they got back to Toadstool Castle. "Did Bowser really make deals to be aligned with the various enemies of these worlds? What's he up to. I know he's not about to use these various worlds for any purpose."

"It's beyond me Mario." Luigi replied brushing off the dust from his shoulder from the previous fight with the Whomp King. "But it doesn't concern us. We got to keep going, so off to the next world."

"Let's a go!" exclaimed Mario as they went off to a room that looked like an aquarium and stared at a painting that looked like a sunken ship. The brothers then ran up to it, and jumped inside the painting, entering their third world.


	14. Jolly Roger Bay

The Mario Brothers now found themselves in what appeared to be a lagoon that was surrounded by tall mountains. A few feet ahead of them were a body of water that seemed to compose of this entire world. What was strange to the Mario Brothers was that there was no presence of any Koopa Troops whatsoever.

"Seems a little too quiet here Mario." Said Luigi, trying to explore the surrounding beach that they happened to land on.

"My guess," replied Mario, staring at the water that was ahead of them. "Is that the Koopa troops are down in the water and if that's the case, then the way to find the next Power Stars would be to venture down." The Mario brothers, without hesitation, dived into the water where they hoped to find the power stars from this world. On the way down, they found a huge ship that was guarded by a battalion of Koopas as well as a giant pink eel. It appeared that the pink eel was blocking everyone from entering the interior of the ship.

"Come on you stupid eel," said one of the Koopa troops pulling out his sword. "Let us in, or we will have to use force on you." The eel didn't budge, only staring at the Koopa troop hungrily. "Alright you asked for it, you dumb sea creature." The Koopa troop charged at it, only to be swiftly eaten by the eel. The other guards backed up, trying to think of a new plan in order to deal with it. They then looked behind them to see that the Mario Brothers were gaining on their position.

"Well that's fantastic," said one of the Koopa troops while everyone in the battalion drew their swords. "We gotta deal with this eel blocking our way to the Power Stars as well as those cumbersome plumbers closing in on us. Anyone got any bright ideas?"

"Divide and conquer boys," said another of the Koopa troops, dividing up the battalion into two. "One half takes on the eel, while the other half takes on the plumbers. Let's do this, for the Koopa Empire!"

With that said, the Koopa troops went to work. The Mario Brothers saw the divide in the battalion of the troops, as one half was going to meet them for a battle. "When do these guys ever learn?" Asked Luigi in a sarcastic tone who decided against using his fire flower power up since they were underwater.

"They don't." replied Mario who also decided against using the fire power up as they now were face to face against the troops in the front of their path. "Don't you have anything better to do than to harass us?" Asked Mario in a sarcastic tone to the troops, as they smiled that cocky smile that Mario has seen too many times from each Koopa troop that tried to face them before they were slain.

"We were about to ask the same thing." Said one of the troops as the Koopas charged as the Mario Brothers. Because of the water's heavy property, the Koopas soon realized that their swords would be useless against the Mario Brothers, so they were forced to go into their shells, and do their shell charge attack. The Mario Brothers, anticipating this, quickly grabbed on to two of the Koopa troops shells, surprising the two Koopa troops, as they bashed around the other soldiers that joined the two in trying to attack them. They then used the shells, to steer themselves around the area until they got to the ship, where the other remaining source of the Koopa Troops were. They quickly bashed them and then found themselves having to deal with the eel. Because the eel took a liking to eating Koopa Troops, the heroes used this to their advantage. They teased the eel with the Koopa shells they were swimming in and threw them to a far area of the body of water, making the eel chase after them. Eventually, the eel chased down the shells and ate them, taking out the two remaining soldiers of the Koopa troop army.

The next step from there was for Mario and Luigi to explore the interior of the ship through the slit that the eel blocked previously. When they entered the structure they saw six treasure chests that were lined up along the bottom of the sunken ship. They opened up the chests, and they contained the six power stars they needed from this area.

"YES!" cried Mario as he collected the six Power Stars from this area. "Another world bites the dust!"

"Great, now can we go now?" Asked Luigi.

"Yeah I guess." As the Mario Brothers quickly swam back up to the shore, and onto the beach. As they took one final look back at the body of water, they were quickly surprised to see that the ship quickly got back up to sea. "Hmm, those stars must have been the cause as to why the ship became sunken."

"Or why that eel was guarding it." Said Luigi, almost as surprised as Mario that the ship got back up. "I guess not all denizens of this world are not as easily tricked into helping the Koopa Empire."

"Guess not…" said Mario as the two brothers made it back to Toadstool Castle. With the third world check off, they proceeded to go off into the next room, which looked like the same room where the Whomp Fortress was located. However, this room contained a painting of one big snowman, one little snowman, and a tree.

The two brothers entered the painting, gearing up for whatever laid before them.

Meanwhile, at the upper levels of Toadstool Castle, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy finally regained consciousness as they woke up to a room that was unfamiliar to Daisy, but was familiar to Peach. The walls of this room had a starry night design, along with a clock and an alcove to the right, which was the location of another world that the stars were kept in. Behind the princesses was another red star door that would take them to the highest interior point of the castle. Bowser saw them wake up and walked over towards the princesses.

"You see," Bowser began clearing his throat in a serious tone. "It's nothing personal princesses. I just need you as sort of a bargaining chip if you will."

"A BARGANING CHIP FOR WHAT?!" Angrily asked Peach, who was trying her best to rattle the cages, wanting to escape from the prison she was in. Daisy then calmed her friend down as she put her hand on her shoulder.

"Well, I have a twofold plan. While I always wanted to rule your kingdoms, I have decided that there is a little bit more that I've really wanted ever since my first attempt if trying to kidnap you. Ever since you escaped…"

"And what is that exactly?" Asked Daisy curiously, who was also mad at Bowser for kidnapping her as well as her best friend.

"Revenge…" eerily said Bowser, a little expression of anger appearing on his face. "Those Mario Brothers were the cause for everything wrong with my kingdom now as well as the hate that grows within me every day." Bowser then pointed to the star on the red star door behind the princesses. "But with them…I'll be strong enough to defeat them and rearrange my empire. Of course, that will mean I have to take care of a few loose ends."

Princess Peach and Daisy looked at each other in a fearful manner, thinking they were the loose ends Bowser was talking about. They tensed up for a second before Bowser laughed menacingly, making their assumptions even more correct.

"Don't flatter yourself princesses," Bowser said, calming the princesses down a bit. "I don't want to kill you. Overseeing your kingdoms under my rule would be beneficial as that would decrease uprisings. No, there are other loose ends that need to be taken care of. One of them being my apprentice…"

"Your apprentice?" said both princesses in a questioning matter, wondering who exactly would want to work for this tyrant.

"You see…" Bowser began again, holding a grinning smile upon his face. "I had to brainwash the poor fellow into thinking he was helping my kingdom out as well as yours from Mario and Luigi. He has no idea who I truly am. And that's the best part. He simply has to distract your heroes long enough for me to unlock more secrets of your precious Power Stars. Of course, if he kills them, that's an added bonus since he has the ability to do so." Bowser than let out another evil chuckle as the princesses began to draw a sad expression their faces.

"And your other loose ends?" Asked Peach as she began to think of Mario being in serious trouble, making her eyes tear up worrying about the hero she loved.

"Yeah just who the hell are they?" Angrily asked Daisy as she eyes began to tear up, thinking of Luigi.

"Those…are better left not discussed." Bowser replied as he left them to cry over the heroes, going back to his book from where he would learn more secrets about the Power Stars.


	15. Cool Cool Mountain

The Mario Brothers landed on their next world, which appeared to be a snowy mountain that was enormous in height. It would be a long fall if there was an unfortunate mishap if one would fall to the bottom. Where the Mario brothers were located held a small frozen bond a few feet away from them as well as the roof to a cabin that was snow logged. Mario and Luigi approached the roof of the cabin seeing a sign posted out addresses to Luigi and Mario.

Heroes,

Please enjoy my fine cabin to get away from the cold of this mountain. Comes equipped with heat and a fun slide. This is my gift to you heroes.

From,

The Cabin Proprietor

"I don't buy this sign one bit," said Luigi giving the sign a crazed look. "It looks like a trap."

"While it may be a trap Luigi," Mario said examining the chimney of the cabin. "It it's our only lead to find out where the Power Stars in this world. Unless you want to go to the bottom and find out Luigi." Mario then gave a small grin to Luigi, who got flustered all of a sudden.

"There is no way I'm going down there." Cried Luigi as he looked down at the bottom of the mountain, which seemed vast in his eyes not seeing a good landing spot for him.

"Then let's a go." Said Mario as he jumped down the chimney of the cabin.

"I'm a not going to like this." Thought Luigi as he jumped down the chimney as well.

When the Mario Brothers landed down, they landed on a hard wooden floor that was the entrance to an icy slide. The room that they were in had only wooden walls and no doors as well as no windows. While the Mario brothers expected a Koopa ambush, there were no troops present, allowing themselves to let their guard down in the meantime.

"So much for no traps," said Luigi as he took a look at the icy slide, realizing if someone fell off the slide, it would most likely mean certain death. "I told you I didn't trust that sign."

Mario then gave a "shut up" look to Luigi as he also looked down the icy slide. "What other options did we have Luigi?"

"True. But don't expect that going down this slide is going to be easy."

"It won't. But that's what makes it fun." Mario and Luigi then proceeded to begin sliding down the icy slide until they got to the end of it. The Mario Brothers then saw a chest protruding at the end of the room where the exit of the slide was.

"That must be where the power stars were at." Mario thought as he rushed to the chest, followed shortly by Luigi. All of a sudden, an alarm was triggered from the room and the chest was lowered beneath the floor of a room. Koopa troops suddenly surrounded the edges of the room, and charged at the Mario brothers with their swords. While surprised at first, Mario and Luigi quickly dodged the initial wave of attackers and proceeded to move to the center of the room, where they were circled in by the Koopa troops. They then equipped their fire flower power up and did a circle sweeping motion. The Koopa troops were easily burned, some of them strategically burning up towards the icy slide where it melted away completely, which left Mario and Luigi no option to turn back once they got the Power Stars. Pretty soon, the Koopa troops were defeated and the chest that was once at the bottom of the floor came back up to where the brothers could open. One Mario and Luigi opened it up; the six Power Stars were released from it, and fell into the hands of the heroes.

"I'm glad we got the Power Stars Mario," Luigi said with a worried look. "But how are we supposed to get out of here?" Mario looked around the room until he saw a door behind Luigi. He then pointed in the direction ahead of Luigi, until Luigi turned around to see a big door staring right in front of him. "Oh…" Luigi then blushed in embarrassment as Mario chuckled at Luigi's moment of idiocy. When the heroes opened up the door, they realized that a huge block of snow was blocking their way from advancing further.

"Let's turn up the heat." Said Mario while nudging Luigi with an elbow. Luigi rolled his eyes as Mario's attempt at a joke as they both used their fire flower power up to melt the snow away. When the snow was melted, they realized they were back from where they entered the world.

"Mario?" said Luigi staring blankly at the distance ahead.

"Yes Luigi?"

"You do realize that we could have melted this DAMN SNOW and could have ended the mission a lot quicker…" Luigi than angrily glared at Mario, who just smiled sheepishly.

"Oh you wouldn't have been able to have fun with the slide if we didn't." Mario then gave a big sheepish smile as Luigi just looked at him expressionless.

"Whatever, let's just go." The Mario Brothers then left the world and entered Toadstool Castle yet again. Realizing there were no more worlds left to explore in the main hall, the heroes proceeded to go back to the red star door they had seen previously. When they went back, the stars they had collected began to brighten very quickly, which seemed to cause a reaction to the star door. The star door then opened, allowing the Mario Brothers to proceed.

"Ready bro?" Mario asked, getting ready to enter what was ahead of them.

"You know it." Luigi replied as the Mario Brothers entered the room that the Big Red Star door contained. It contained a portrait of princess Peach at the very edge of the room who looked trapped and screamed for Mario to come and get her.

"PEACH!" Mario yelled running up to the portrait not knowing it was a trap.

"MARIO WAIT!" cried Luigi as he was able to see the façade of the painting knowing it would transform into Bowser the closer you get to it. When Mario finally realized what the portrait really contained, it was too late and Mario fell into the pit below. "Hold on Mario I'm coming". Luigi soon joined Mario in the pit trap below.


	16. The Mario Brothers vs The Ranger Part I

Mario and Luigi, after what seemed like a minute or two, finally fell down into what seemed like an arena of sorts. They were a bit groggy from the fall, but they were sound enough to fight if they needed to, which seemed like the case from Bowser setting up a trap for them.

"My aching head," Mario said while rubbing his head, trying to relieve the pain he received from that long fall. "How are you holding up Luigi?"

"Could be better honestly," Luigi replied also rubbing his head. "But I'm fine." The Mario Brothers looked ahead of them to see a figure in the distance, who was masked by the darkness.

"That must be Bowser." Mario thought as his fists were clenched approaching the figure with Luigi by his side. The Mario brothers got up to the point where they were a few feet away from the figure, who could only gave the Mario Brothers a small grin as he just stood there. "There you are Bowser." Mario said with a hint of anger in his voice, wishing he could burn the figure away but remembered Bowser's fire invulnerability. "WHERE'S PEACH AND DAISY?!" The figure drew no response, but then cleared his voice to talk, masking the weapons that he held at his possession.

"You seem to think there is a clear way to settle things my adversaries." The Ranger replied shocking both brothers as they could tell from that voice that it was not Bowser.

"Who are you?" asked Luigi, demanding to know what exactly was going on.

"My name is of no concern to you oppressors of freedom. Do you think what has happened was by random chance? The Koopas, the princesses being kidnapped in the castle instead of being taken back to the Koopa Empire and the fact that you two are here. Everything that has been set up here was to lure you two here."

"Well of course we were lured here." Mario said trying to get out the letter that was given to him by Princess Peach. "My brother and I were invited here to have some cake with the Princesses." However, Mario, nor his brother could not find the invitations not that it would convince the Ranger otherwise he was accidentally on the wrong side as the Ranger was fully intent on bringing his targets down.

"Did you think that was also by chance that you two were invited here just to see your princesses being kidnapped? You two are even more gullible than I thought you were." The ranger let out a small chuckle, thinking about the criminals he had taken down in Colorado who had been set up in similar traps such as this. The Mario brothers were angry by his remarks, insulted by a stranger that they had never met before nor had any purpose belonging to this world.

"Just who the hel- do you think you are? YOU HOODLUM!" Luigi shouted, causing the Ranger to stop laughing and instead casting as glare at the Mario Brothers as he readied for his weapons, but didn't pull them out.

"Hoodlum? You dare insult me? Is that all you tyrants could say after the trouble you have caused for these three kingdoms?" The Mario Brothers just stood in confusion, not sure on how to respond to those remarks.

"Us…trouble?" asked the Mario Brothers in confusion as the Ranger backed up a few feet away, putting his hands on his bow and arrow.

"You know what I'm talking about. Don't play dumb with me!" The Ranger replied eyeing the two with hate in his eyes. The Mario Brothers looked at each other, both confused and angered by the accusations rose against them as Luigi then cleared his throat to speak up.

"Sir, we honestly don't know what you are talking about." The Ranger wouldn't hear it as he cut him off before he had anything else to say.

"Fine, if you don't want to confess your crimes here to me right now then I will provide the narration. Let's go back to you two when you came to the Mushroom Kingdom from the warp pipe you were let down just like me. You were welcomed here, probably by the compassion of the Mushroom Kingdom and were taken to hospitality by the Princesses of the Mushroom Kingdom." Mario then cut off the Ranger before letting him continue.

"Actually, the princesses were kidnapped by your so called benevolent Koo-"Before Mario could say anything else, he was vastly interrupted by the Ranger.

"SILENCE!" The Ranger yelled causing Mario to silence his tongue, at least for the time being. "My master did say that you two would try to manipulate, twist the story into your personal benefit. But I won't have it." The Ranger then cleared his throat again as he attempted to speak again. "As I was saying, you then took the Mushroom Kingdom under your own power. Ruling it for whatever purpose you wanted it to be, ruling it out of fear. My master and the Koopa Empire then tried to help them, get the princesses to his territory in order to keep them safe, out of the ruling hand of your tyranny. They didn't like leaving their people behind under your watch, but they understood that was the only way to help rescue them eventually. And then you came…burned down their villages slaughtered their people, almost killed my master and took the princesses on your merry way, allowing yourselves to still become the despotic rulers that your façade hides from the rest of the public."

Mario and Luigi looked at him baffled by his accusations as his stories seemed out there to them as they would never do what the acts that the Ranger just described to them. "You got it all wrong Ranger," Mario said trying to settle this dispute peacefully. "Those stories your master told you were a lie, we would never hurt a soul unless they deserved it. I'll give you the fact that we did destroy the villages and slaughtered the people in the Darklands, but there was a reason to all of this. Bowser kidnapped the princesses in order to take control of their kingdoms. We only went there to save them.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!" The ranger yelled drawing his bow out and putting an arrow in it. "And now, I'm going to put a stop to you ONCE AND FOR ALL!" The ranger then fired his arrow at the brothers, but they dodged at the last minute, Mario moving to his right, and Luigi moving at his left. "Oh this is going to be fun." The Ranger thought loading up another arrow. Mario then took the chance to put up his fire power up and cast a fireball at the ranger but he dodged it easily moving to the center of the arena, putting himself in the middle between the two Mario brothers.

"This guy's going to be tougher than any enemy we've ever met." Mario thought charging up his fire power up again. "Maybe even tougher than Bowser." He then cast another fireball in the Ranger's direction, leaping out of the way while firing another arrow at Mario, causing him to dodge that arrow by a second.

Luigi meanwhile anticipated the Ranger's dodge and moved behind him and then gave him a good punch in his back, causing the Ranger to fly back a few feet. The ranger quickly got up as he fired another arrow at Luigi, hitting him right in the leg. "OWWWWWWW!" Luigi cried as he quickly grabbed the arrow from his leg and threw it away. Luigi then took up another fire flower and equipped it, allowing him to get back at full strength. "You're going to pay for that." Luigi thought as he charged at the ranger. The ranger fully focused on Luigi, and continuously fired arrows at Luigi in order to keep him aback.

Mario, since the ranger was fully distracted at Luigi, was able to charge up a fireball large enough in order for it to be unavoidable for the Ranger. He then unleashed it. When the Ranger turned to his back to look at Mario, he widened his eyes a bit as he saw the fireball close in on him. He then closed his eyes and silently took it as it engulfed him and threw him back a few to where Luigi was previously. He quickly tried to get rid of the flames from his cape, but realized that he needed water to fan out the flames. "This is a total disgrace to my code…" The Ranger thought as few times he had ever needed the option to retreat following a battle with any criminals he had faced. The Ranger took out an explosive arrow and fired it at the floor from where Mario was. He then clicked a button from his bow to detonate it, sending Mario flying with bits of shrapnel covering the attire of the red hero. Luigi saw this happening, fearing for his brother's life while angered by the Ranger for putting Mario's life in danger.

The Ranger then retreated via a green war pipe placed on the outer edge of the arena, sending him back outside the red star door where the pit trap was located, accidentally dropping a key to the basement. When he looked at his pocket, he felt around, realizing that he dropped a key to the basement to the castle. "Well at least it wasn't the attic key." The Ranger thought as he quickly rushed to the basement floor. He quickly found a bathroom, and allowed the water to douse the cape, reliving it of the fiery burden of the battle before. "Next time Mario Brothers," The ranger put his hand on the falchion that he didn't reveal to the Mario Brothers. "You won't be so lucky." After dousing the cape, the Ranger found another Big Red Star Door near the entrance to the basement and found that he was able to go through it. When the Ranger opened the door, he found what appeared to be another pit that was sticking out of the ground. "No chance to get them into a trap this time." He approached the pit and saw a switch right next to it.

Curious to see how it would work, the Ranger pulled it. After a few seconds, the portal that he saw earlier was coming closer to him. Realizing that the portal would eventually suck him in, the Ranger decided to jump in the pit, and deal with whatever lied before him.

Meanwhile back at the arena where the Ranger and the Mario Brothers were, Luigi rushed to his brother's aid, taking out all the shrapnel that was in Mario's body. Fortunately there wasn't much shrapnel to deal with, but there was enough to give Mario several cuts all over his body. "Mario are you alright?" Luigi asked, carefully helping Mario back up to his feet.

"Yeah I'm fine." Mario replied as he got back up to his feet, examining the arena again, seeing shrapnel and debris from the fight sprinkled all over. "Hey, where's that Ranger guy?"

"That bastard left." Luigi replied with a hint of anger in his voice, getting Mario's attention quickly. "Next time we see him, he won't have a chance to escape like that."

"I have a feeling that he doesn't know that he is playing for the wrong team." Mario then tried to put his hand on Luigi's shoulder to try to calm him down, but he wouldn't have any of it.

"How can you be so DAMN SURE?" Luigi angrily asked. "Look at what he has done to you." Luigi then pointed at his injuries to which Mario brushed them off again revealing the fact that he was fine.

"Bowser must have convinced him to a great detail. I just don't think he would ever want to work for a brute and a tyrant like that. Especially who captures princesses like that of Peach and Daisy." He then pointed over to the green warp pipe, which he believed was a sure sign of getting out of here. "Speaking of which, we should probably get going." The Mario Brothers then made their way over to the green warp pipe. Mario was walking gingerly for a bit, but then got his strength back after a few minutes, revealing to Luigi that the shrapnel dealt no serious damage to him.

Luigi then found what looked to be a key on the ground next to the pipe and picked it up. "Hmm, I wonder where this leads to." Luigi thought as both Mario Brothers climbed into the warp pipe and slid down it.


	17. A Ghostly Discovery

Mario and Luigi warped back in front of the Big Red Star door that they had just entered, and began to plan out their next move.

"Well I can't remember any more paintings that I would know get us to other worlds." Mario said as he looked at the attic door that they wanted to go into. "What do you think we should do now Luigi?" Luigi just looked at the key he had just picked up from the previous skirmish and showed it to Mario.

"Let's see what this key opens up." Replied Luigi as he tried to open the attic door. When he put the key inside the lock, he realized that it wouldn't budge. "Hmm, this key must be for another door. We haven't explored downstairs yet have we?" Mario shook his head no as Luigi got an idea. "Well then, let's go explore downstairs and see if we can find any more of those paintings, or that Ranger guy." Luigi's face got frustrated from saying that word, remembering the pain he had inflicted on Mario, even though he said he was alright. If there was one thing that got Luigi upset, it was the fact that harm had come to his brother, and nothing short of silencing that enemy for good would give him peace of mind.

The Mario Brothers went downstairs when all of a sudden it felt as if a breeze was coming in. "That's impossible," Mario thought as he suddenly felt cold for a second. "All the doors leading outside are closed." Then the Mario Brothers jumped in fear as they heard eerie laughing coming from the hallway that was to the left of the stairs leading to the basement. "It's coming from that hallway Luigi." Mario said as he pointed to it with his finger.

"I don't think it's such a good idea to go over there Mario." Luigi said as he tensed up all of a sudden, growing nervous with each eerie laugh coming the heroes' way.

"You're not afraid are you?" Mario asked with a devilish grin upon his face.

"Of course I am. I have no idea where that is coming from."

"Oh come on Luigi. Do it for Daisy." After that, Mario gave Luigi a pat on the shoulder, finally calming him down.

"Alright, let's a go before I change my mind." Mario took point as Luigi followed close behind. With each step they took within the hallway, the eerie laughter grew louder and louder. The "wind" was also picking up as it felt like they were being pushed and pulled. "Mario, I don't a like this."

"Me neither Luigi but we have to push forward." When they were twenty feet from the door, they saw something in the distance. The heroes couldn't decipher what it was, but all it did was stand by the doorway, blocking the brothers from entering it. The figure then disappeared through the door when they spotted them, causing Luigi to get uncontrollably nervous.

"Was that a GHOST?!" Luigi cried as his teeth started chattering.

"Yup." Mario said as he swallowed heavily, also nervous from the fact that he spotted a ghost for the first time in his life when it wasn't Luigi playing pranks on him. "It doesn't matter though; we have to check it out."

"Ok." Luigi said reluctantly as he regained his courage again as the Mario Brothers opened the door leading out to the courtyard of the castle. When they entered the courtyard, the Mario Brothers froze in place with their eyes wide open as they spotted a dozen ghosts alone over by the fountain of the courtyard, looking at them.

These ghosts were called Boos by the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. They were white as snow with a shape that was almost like a mini airplane. They had eyes that were as black as coal, a unibrow, little stubs for hands, and pointed teeth with a wicked grin. When they spotted the Mario Brothers, they move slowly towards them, with the intent of trying to absorb them within their bodies which is one of the ways that they silenced their enemies.

"Ok then," Mario said putting on his fire power up. "Let's see if you like fire then." Mario cast a fireball in their direction, which caused one of the boos to howl in pain as it ran around trying to put the flame out, until dissipating in the wind as its soul was put to rest. "Not so scary anymore are you? Ok Luigi let them have it."

"Ok-k th-then." Luigi said as he was still nervous that he actually seeing ghosts with his own eyes. Luigi equipped his fire power up and unleashed a fireball of his own, causing another boo to have the same result as the previous boo had with Mario. Because the boos were slow footed, the Mario Brothers had no difficulty in getting rid of the other boos. One interesting that they found at the conclusion of their battle was that they uncovered what looked to be a little cage with a house inside it.

"What is that thing?" Luigi asked examining the item dropped from the boo.

"I don't know," Mario said also looking at the strange item. "But whatever it is, it must have Power Stars. So we have to go in."

"How do you know that thing has any Power Stars, what if it's a trap set up by whatever those things were?"

"Luigi, you think everything is a trap." Mario said while giving Luigi a smug look.

"Well-Well…" Luigi could only say thinking of a way to justify himself. "Alright maybe I do, but I still believe if we use that thing, it will do us no good."

"This whole mission has done us no good Luigi." Mario replied as he looked up to the highest point of the castle. "But we did this for the people we love."

"I guess. Fine let's go in then Mario." The Mario stepped closer to the cage as all of a sudden the Mario Brothers were sucked into the cage. "MARIO!" Luigi yelled as he felt himself being pulled into the cage.

"LUIGI!" Mario yelled back as both of them shrunk down to a size small enough to enter the cage. The cage then fell to the ground, with no trace of either Mario Brother outside of it.


	18. Big Boo's Haunt

After a few minutes, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom found themselves right in front of a mansion. It was a mansion built with wood of some type along with a mahogany roof as well as windows that were lit up eerily. Surrounding the Mario Brothers was a cage that was impossible to escape until they had gotten what they came for, which was the Power Stars. Instead of the midafternoon sky that surrounded Toadstool Castle, the sky above them was dusk, with a full moon setting in, adding to the creepy tone that this world was trying to emit. The eerie laughter that the Mario Brothers were hearing earlier were present again in this world, signaling that this was the main source of the boo infestation in Toadstool Castle.

"Let's just get this over with." Luigi said while equipping his fire power up.

"You can say that again." Mario replied as he put on his fire flower power up. The Mario brothers encountered some Boos as they made their way on to the mansion as they burned them away easily. When they got inside the mansion, they heard a deep booming voice that didn't seem to come from anybody.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN DESTROY MY FAMILY!BEWARE OF MY WRATH! IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE NOW, I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE THINGS INTO MY OWN HANDS!" The voice then dissipated, causing trembling from the Mario Brothers, having no idea where that voice was coming from.

"Where did that come from?!" Luigi asked, as his fear of boos were increasing more than ever before after hearing that.

"I don't know. But let's find out by exploring this mansion a bit." Mario replied as the Mario Brothers examined the main hall of the Boo Mansion. It appeared to contrast with the wood external layer of the mansion as the main hall's floor and walls were covered in hard stone, adding to the haunting environment that the Boos created by building the mansion. All the doors leading to the other rooms of the mansion were made in stone. Torches lined the walls of the mansion emitting a dark red flame. "Hmm, let's try the first door on the left." Mario went to that door with Luigi right behind them.

Mario opened the door to find a room that was almost like a study. It was a disturbingly calm room, that had the wooden walls and floor that they had expected before from the main hall. They were bookshelves lining the right side of the room as well as a piano in the left corner that was the furthest away from the Mario Brothers.

"Mario, this is getting weird." Luigi said who felt disturbed by the calming presence the study hall gave them.

"No kidding." Mario said as he explored the bookshelves, seeing what books they had to offer. "Hey Luigi, go play me some Beethoven on the piano over there."

"Oh come on Mario, you know I can't play the piano any good."

"You can play better than me Luigi. Besides I'm trying to read over here."

"Fine." Luigi went over to the piano and got ready to play it. "But I ain't playing Beethoven." Mario then pouted at Luigi, which he tried to ignore. As Luigi sat on the piano chair and banged on the piano keys, the piano suddenly came to life and started attacking Luigi. Luigi jumped out of his chair in surprise, which got Mario's attention as well as he stopped reading his book. "MARIO HELP!" Yelled Luigi as he was struggling to bring down the piano looking monster.

"I'm a coming Luigi!" Mario called out as he cast fireballs rapidly at the piano monster, weakening it bit by bit until he finally came down to a crashing halt. It also didn't help that the piano keys were groaning and grieving, which were the deathly cries of the monster that were not easy on the ears. After the small battle, Luigi got up from the wreckage, with a few scratches and bruises, but he was fine.

"Thank you Mario. I thought I was a goner."

"No problem Luigi, glad you're ok."

"Yeah, but now I think I'm going to stay away from pianos for a little while." Luigi replied with a small chuckle, causing both brothers to chuckle a bit nervously as they were both scared about other surprised would this mansion hold for them.

"Yeah I agree. Now let's kick some boo tail Luigi." Luigi silently nodded as Mario opened the door to the next room with Luigi right behind him, ready to cast a fireball in case of another surprise attack.

The next room contained a wooden floor while having stone walls, creating both an eerie as well as a disturbingly calm environment. There were bookshelves scattered all over the room as well as big poster picture of a big boo ghost on one portion of the wall. Mario and Luigi cautiously approached the room so as to avoid any traps that might have been lurking for them. All of a sudden, books started moving fast towards the Mario brothers like bullets, with Mario and Luigi dodging in the nick of time each time a book was thrown. After a few minutes, the bookshelves were empty as each book had missed Mario and Luigi and landed on the floor which covered the wooden floor with tattered book pages. When the trap failed, some Boo ghosts took over, trying to subjugate the Mario Brothers. The Mario Brothers easily took care of the slow moving ghosts with their fire flower up power. When they were defeated, the booming voice that the Mario Brothers had heard previously was heard booming again.

"I WARN YOU TO TURN BACK NOW! ACCEPT MY OFFER AND LEAVE THIS PLACE! LEST YOU WANT TO ENCOUNTER THE LIKES OF ME!" The voice dissipated again, but there was no fear from the Mario Brothers this time as their determination to get out of here with the stars was much stronger. They exited that room to find themselves back at the main hall of the mansion. Their next move was to enter the last room of the mansion.

The last room of the mansion was quite deceptive as it really was not a room at all. It had a small stone platform from the beginning of the door and a small gap between the other platform at the other side of the room. The small gap would lead to an abysmal pit, one that the Mario and Luigi would like to avoid.

"Alright let me jump first." Luigi said remembering the last time he jumped last.

_Flashback 7 hours ago_

_ Mario went first since he was the oldest and Luigi watched his brother time his jumps successfully in order to make it across to the other side. Luigi then performed his own attempt to successfully do it, and by the time he made it to the last platform and jumped he unfortunately jumped too short to make it across._

_ "MARIO!" yelled Luigi as he realized he was descending into the endless bottom below. Luckily, Mario had grabbed his hand just in the nick of time in order to pull Luigi into the platform below._

_ "Gotya bro!" yelled Mario as he pulled Luigi into the platform with him. Luigi then rested for a second, attempting to calm down for a bit._

_ "Phew that was close," Luigi said, trying to slow down his breathing. "For a second or two, I thought I was a goner."_

_End of Flashback_

Luigi timed his jumped perfectly as he had successfully made it to the other platform. However, several Boos appeared from the other side sneak fully and incapacitated Luigi, causing Mario to jump back a little in fear.

"MARIO!" Luigi cried as he was being held captive inside one of the Boos.

"I'm a coming Luigi!." Mario replied as he rushed over to the edge of his platform, jumped successfully to the other side. He then equipped his fire power up quickly, and then burned the ghosts allowing to Luigi to successfully come out of the ghost. He laid there for a few seconds motionless before coming back to his own feet. Mario just stared at his brother, questioning the health of his brother and contemplating that he may need a rest after that. "Are you ok Luigi?"

Luigi then got back up and brushed some invisible dust over his shoulder. "Yeah I'm fine. Let's go."

Mario, staring oddly at his brother, went to open the door again to see the main hall of the castle. "I just don't get it." Mario said scratching his head in confusion. "We went through every room of this place and still no power stars. Where the heck are they?"

"THEY ARE RIGHT WITH ME TRESPASSERS!" The booming voice said, now revealing itself to be a giant boo, sneaking up on Mario from behind in order to capture him. Mario completely caught off guard, was easily sucked up inside the Big BOO, pounding on the Big Boo's insides to no avail in order to escape.

"LUIGI!" Mario yelled as he still tried to escape the Big Boo that had trapped him inside.

"MARIO!" Luigi yelled as he put up his fire power up on. "Let him go or else."

"OR ELSE WHAT?" The Big Boo replied, laughing mockingly at Luigi. "WHAT'S A HUMAN LIKE YOU GOING TO DO TO A POWERFUL BOO LIKE ME?!"

"I'll show you." Luigi replied as he sent a fireball down the Big Boo's way. It hit him, but the Big Boo was still up, not really affected by the fireball.

"IS THAT ALL?" The Big Boo asked, who was grinning deviously at Luigi. "I AM MUCH STRONGER THAN THE BOOS YOU HAVE BEEN FACING. SO A LITTLE FIREBALL ISN'T GOING TO HURT THE LIKES OF ME." The Big Boo then let out an ear bleeding screech, as Luigi got down to the ground, trying to cover his ears from the horrible sound. All of a sudden, little boos appeared all over the main hall, causing Luigi to stir in surprise. "GO AHEAD MY CHILDREN!. HE'S ALL YOURS FOR THE TAKING!" The little boos, came up to Luigi, as he was backed into a wall. The sight of all those boos approached him, frightening a little. However, he then looked towards Mario who was also afraid of what the Big Boo was going to do to him, motivating Luigi to continue fighting, despite the fact that he was so afraid of them.

"You stay the hel- away from me." Luigi said with a hint of anger in his voice as his fists were clenched in anger. He then rapidly fired fireball after fireball, picking off another ghost one by one. The deathly cries of the boos seemed to infuriate the Big Boo as now he aggressively charged at Luigi. Luigi dodged to his left, this time attempting to charge a big fireball instead of throwing a small one like last time. This time it hit the Boo, which made it pause as it seemed to hurt him a bit, causing him to become even more angry. The Big Boo then charged at Luigi again, hurling him towards the wall behind him, causing him to groan from the pain that spiked from his back.

"FACE IT PUNY HUMAN! YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT MY KIND! The Big Boo said softly, taunting Luigi by showing Mario was still trapped.

"Come on little bro." Mario said, fearful that his brother was going to lose against the Big Boo. "Wake up and take him down."

Luigi finally stirred for what seemed like a few minutes, then looked at the Big Boo with a scowl, confusing the Big Boo thinking he would be afraid of it. Luigi then charged up his fireball as continued to give a glare to the Boo. "WILL YOU JUST REST!" Luigi then unleashed a huge fireball at the Big Boo, causing it to burn uncontrollably.

"AHH! GET IT OFF ME!" The Big Boo cried in pain as he let Mario go quickly, with Luigi rushing to his aid.

"You okay Mario?" Luigi asked, offering his hand to Mario so he could stand up.

"Yeah, I'm okay little bro." Mario said as grabbed his hand then gave Luigi a bro fist while the two of them stared at the Big Boo as it was living its moments.

"I SWEAR TO YOU HUMAN. OUR KIND WILL HAVE REVENGE AGAINST YOU!" The Big Boo then pointed to Luigi in defiance, as it was finally swept up in the winds, leaving behind the six power stars that Mario and Luigi were looking for.

"Well would you look at that. We found the Power stars." Luigi grabbed them up in his possession as Mario was right behind him, giving Luigi a high five.

"We sure did Luigi." Mario replied as they then exited the mansion, eager to leave this world. When they exited the mansion, they felt themselves being pushed out of the cage as they grew in size in the world until they burst out of the sky setting of the caged world. When the process was done, they had escape the cage of the Boo world as Mario and Luigi were glad to be back in Toadstool Castle.


	19. Down the Basement

Relived to be back in Toadstool Castle, Mario and Luigi proceeded to exit the courtyard from the door in which they came. They were also relived by the fact that there was no signs that the boos were at the castle anymore as no unexpected wind approached nor the eerier laughter that the boos seemed to make.

"Well I'ma glad we won't have to deal with those boo creeps anymore." Luigi said as he opened the door to exit the courtyard. Mario went through the door first, as he heard no sign of the boos from inside the castle either.

"Yeah. Those creeps will think twice before messing with us again in the near future." Mario and Luigi proceeded to go across the hallway and downstairs where they would find another door that looked like it was locked. "Hey Luigi. This looks like your chance to use that key you picked up earlier."

"Hmm," Luigi thought as he proceeded to fumble with the door with that key he had found earlier. All of a sudden, the key clicked in the right place. "Yes!" The basement door was unlocked, giving the Mario Brothers a new part of the castle to explore and to try to find the paintings that they needed.

"Good job Luigi." Mario said as he proceeded to walk through the basement door to get a feel for his surroundings. The basement looked very different from the rest of the castle as the walls were covered in a green pipe texture instead of the normal marble walls of the castle floors above the basement. The floor was also very leaky due to the fact that it was underneath the lake moat. However, in the case there was an emergency that required use of the basement, there were drainage systems set up to collect the excess water and recycle it back to the lake above. Mario looked over to his left, where he spotted another Big Red Star Door. "Hey Luigi, check this out. I found another one of those star doors."

"I'll bet that's where we'll find this Ranger fellow." Luigi said with his fists clenched, eager for a chance to get a second fight with him, still upset with the pain he had caused Mario with the explosive arrow shot, not to mention the shot he took in the leg from him. The Mario Brothers walked up to the door, where the Red Star door would not respond to their presence. "Um Mario, I think we need more stars."

"I guess." Mario replied as he looked towards the other pathway that the basement offered. Mario pointed over towards that pathway running towards it, with Luigi right behind him. "Let's see what this basement has to offer." While exploring the basement, Mario and Luigi opened up one of the basement doors to find themselves staring at a pool of black liquid that looked very suspicious. "Hmm." Mario thought as he examined the black pool at a close distance. "Luigi, I'ma thinking this is another world we have to go to."

"You sure Mario?" Luigi asked also getting close to the pool of black liquid. "To me that just looks like a big container of oil for use of the castle."

"But why would it be contained in this room, instead of near something that would require something like this, like a boiler room or something?"

"Good question." Luigi replied as he kept his eyes on the pool of black liquid, seeming less and less inviting with each second Luigi stared at it. "Alright, I'll be intrigued if you go in first Mario. I'm not risking my clothes to get dirty in order to humor you."

"Geez Luigi, it's not like you're going on a date or something."

"You never know Mario." Luigi replied, his thoughts on Daisy taking her on a date after he would complete this mission.

"Alright I'm a going." Mario said, with Luigi ignoring him since he was still concentrated on the daydream. Mario dived in, disappearing into the portal that the black liquid mysteriously contained, knocking Luigi out of his daydream.

"Huh Mario…" Luigi said in astonishment as Mario was nowhere to be seen. "Guess that was a portal after all." Luigi thought as he dived in after his brother, eager to take on the challenges of the new world.

Meanwhile, The Ranger made it to the next arena that the pit he jumped down into contained. "Guess I better call Bowser to tell him the news." The Ranger murmured as he pulled out his voice communicator.

Bowser was still up in the attic keeping the princesses as hostage while researching more about the power stars. So far in his studies, he had found only history of how the power stars came into existence and little about what actual power it contained. "Damn, why is this reading taking so long?" Bowser thought, losing his patience from reading so much and gaining so little knowledge that he truly needed. He then took a deep breath and proceeded to keep reading. "Patience Bowser, the time will soon come when I will know what I need to know." Suddenly, Bowser's voice communicator was vibrating, indicating that The Ranger was trying to communicate with him. "What does my apprentice want now?" Bowser thought as he reached for his communicator to pick it up. "Talk to me Ranger." Bowser said as he voice had a hint of impatience that luckily The Ranger was not able to detect.

"Sir, the Mario Brothers have gotten access to the basement." The Ranger said, with Bowser grinning in delight as his plan was moving forward rather smoothly. However, in order to keep his disguise he had to feign a voice of disappointment towards The Ranger.

"What happened?" Bowser questioned as he tried to keep his conversation out of earshot from the princesses, who would have exposed him for what he truly was to The Ranger.

"I met them at the first arena and...let's just say they were tough opponents. Although they weren't trying to kill me. It's almost like they want me alive for some malevolent purpose that I'm not sure about."

"Well just try to keep your wits about out you, and don't fall for their tricks." Bowser ordered, with the Ranger giving a silent nod. "Anyway, contact me if you have further news." Bowser then threw the voice communicator away in order not to be bothered from the Ranger again as he went back to work researching the Power stars. However, what he didn't know what that he threw it from reaching distance from the Princesses, who had stirred up from the commotion Bowser threw just a few seconds ago.


	20. Hazy Maze Cave

After diving through the black pool of liquid, Mario and Luigi landed in what appeared to be a world made up of an elaborate tunnel system. The walls were covered in green limestone as well as the pathway to which the Mario Brothers were supposed to be walking on. "Well this world has to be the most dreary and depressing world yet." Luigi remarked, whose mood was turned off by the gloomy mood of the tunnel world before them.

"We're not here on vacation Luigi." Mario said as both brothers were walking on the pathway lit up the little torches on the tunnel walls. "We're to find Power Stars." As Mario and Luigi approached the end of the pathway, there were two forks on the road, one that veered toward the left of the Mario Brothers and one that veered toward the right of the Mario Brothers. "Hmm, where to go?" Mario thought as he was disappointed there wasn't a map to guide them towards the correct point. Then an idea popped into Mario's mind. "Luigi, it looks like we are going to have to separate and take different paths if we want to find the Power Stars." Luigi jumped back at that statement, realizing that he was going to have to take an unknown path alone.

"Are you a crazy Mario?" Luigi responded. "We have no idea what we are going to be running into, and what if one of us gets captured by any lingering Koopa troops, or worse?" Luigi got nervous, his thoughts on Mario being at the mercy of the Koopa Empire's will if he had to fend them off by himself.

Mario rolled his eyes as he cleared his throat to speak. "Luigi I will be fine. I can take care of myself. Besides, this is the only way we will be able to cover the whole area." Luigi hesitantly nodded in agreement as he volunteered to take the right area and Mario would take the left area. "Remember to keep you fire flower power up on at all times. It will not only be an effective weapon against those Koopa bastards, but it will also be a useful light in case there aren't any more torches up our separate pathways."

"Ok," Luigi said as he veered off to the right pathway. "Good luck Mario."

"Good luck to you too Luigi." Mario replied as he veered off to the left pathway.

As Mario ventured off to the left pathway, he began to think of Peach and how she was doing under the capture of Bowser. "I hope she's alright," he thought as he walked off, casting fireballs up the pathway in order to light the way and report any signs of trouble ahead for him. "If that creep touches one hair on her, I'll…" Mario's thought was suddenly interrupted when he spotted a few Koopa guards up the pathway.

The Koopa guards in each of the worlds that were left untouched by the Mario Brothers were on heavy patrol ever since they had gotten word that The Ranger had lost to Mario and Luigi in their duel earlier. "So tell me," one of the Koopa guards told his partner. "How in the world did the Ranger lose to those two plumbers?"

"How should I know?" The other Koopa guard keeping his eyes in front of the path, not able to see Mario in the distance as the darkness was covering him well. "We should take away the fact that he is only a means to an end. His only point in this game of ours is for the Ranger to slow them down. Give the plumbers some bumps and bruises, and we go on happy as the people we hate would be dead."

"Then the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland would be ours." The Koopa said, smiling with delight.

"Exactly." The Koopas then stood there chuckling for a bit as they retreated into the pathway, continuing on with their guard shift.

Mario just stood there in the dark still, angry and bitter at the Koopa Empire knowing and full aware that Bowser was indeed using the Ranger as his pawn and punching bag for the Mario Brothers as Bowser himself would attempt to finish them off eventually. "Well," Mario thought as he got ready to make his move. "Sorry to disappoint you Bowser, but you won't defeat us." Mario then quickly went up the breath, still checking to make sure there weren't any Koopa guards to fight. A few minutes of travelling went by until Mario noticed that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. "I wonder where this takes me too." Mario walked over towards the light, where he saw the same Koopa guards approaching his way. Mario stood in the dark, wanting to take them out silently and not alert who else was in this world to his presence.

"Anyway," the Koopa guard said continuing the same conversation. "What do we do with the Ranger once we've finished with those plumbers?"

"Simple...Bowser offs him and we start clearing house to make our way for expansion." The other guard replied as they were now mere feet from Mario's presence, who waited to cast his fireballs until they guards were behind him. "Trust me, everything will go according to plan."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Mario said, startling the Koopa guards. Before they had time to react, Mario used the fireballs to take out the guards, who went down quietly which allowed Mario to continue down the pathway unnoticed. He then got into the elevator as it went downstairs. As he exited the elevator, he noticed another pathway that went towards a lake. When Mario got to the lake, he noticed that there was a medium sized island in the middle of the lake, which was heavily patrolled by Koopa troops who saw Mario's presence immediately.

"Hey boys." One of the Koopa troops called, getting the attention of the other troops on the island. "Looks like we got a lone brother out here." The Koopa troops quickly got their bows and arrows as Mario got himself ready for the eventual fight. "TAKE HIM DOWN!"

[_Twenty Minutes Earlier_]

"Why'd I have to choose this path." Luigi thought as he carefully traversed his own path, casting fireballs nonstop as he was more afraid of what was out there than Mario was in his own path. Luigi finally came up to a juncture which caught his eye and startled him. The path that he had to walk had a portion that came complete with very tiny platforms that required timely jumping as there were gaps in between the platforms that lead to an abyssal fall. Luigi swallowed hard as he got ready to make his move. "Only I would have do something this ridiculous." Luigi simultaneously casted fireballs in order to make out where he had to jump as well as timed his jumps carefully between the platforms, not wanting to meet the untimely fate of falling in between the gaps. Luckily for Luigi, he made it towards the other side safely. He took a few seconds to rest as he had barely made it through that stretch alive. Then his thought suddenly shifted to Daisy. "I can't believe I allowed her to get kidnapped." Luigi thought his eyes tearing up a bit thinking he was a failure.

A few minutes of self-torture he came to the realization that Mario still needed him to push onward. "Daisy…give me strength." Luigi thought as his love for her pushed him forward to the path ahead. There was a door a few feet away from where he was currently, and ran up to it. He opened the door, where he spotted out of the corner of his eye a garrison of troops on an island. "What are they up to?" Luigi carefully ran up to a ledge from where he was standing. "With a perfectly timed jump, I could give them a nice surprise." Luigi then jumped off the ledge, positioning himself for a headfirst dive.

"TAKE HIM DOWN" All of a sudden the Koopa troops looked up above as they saw what appeared to be a flaming cannonball heading towards them. Mario looked up in astonishment, also confused as to what exactly that thing was. A large explosion commenced, instantly killing three quarters of the troops that were there. Luigi then stood, into a fighting stance with fireballs at the ready to be cast. "It's that other damn plumber!" The same Koopa troop said, standing back up as he recognized him instantly. "YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT YOU MISERABLE LITTLE PUNK! DESTROY THEM BOTH!"

Luigi dealt with the remaining Koopa troops from the island, while Mario picked them apart from a distance. After a few minutes of fighting, the remaining troops went down, allowing Mario to reunite with his brother on the island. "Nice timing Luigi." Mario said as he ruffled Luigi's hair a bit.

"I try." Luigi replied as he noticed that there was a small switch near where he was standing. Luigi pulled on the switch to reveal the six Power Stars coming from the middle of the island. "ALRIGHT!" Yelled Luigi in excitement as both brothers grabbed the six stars. "Heh, we're just racking up these things."

"Yeah, pretty soon we'll be able to kick Bowser's as- in no time." Mario replied as both brothers made their way back to the starting point of their adventure into this world. After a few minutes, they left the world and climbed out of the black pool of liquid, returning them back to Toadstool Castle.

"Alright what's next Mario?" Luigi asked, as he sat down by the edge of the black pool.

"Follow me." Mario replied as he led Luigi out of the room and towards a painting that resembled a huge flame that was smiling down at them.

"I could only imagine what we are getting into." Luigi replied sarcastically as he was not looking forward to the world that the picture hinted at.

"Well, we're not going to do anything standing here. Let's a go!" Mario said as both brothers jumped into the painting, anxious to see what the next world provided them.


	21. Lethal Lava Land

The Mario brothers entered their next world which was so hot that once the brothers entered it, they started to sweat. "Geez it feels like a sauna in here." Luigi commented, who was trying to fan himself off with his hat.

"Yeah man, I feel like my whole body is going to melt if we spent more than an hour in this world." Mario commented as he saw his attire starting to have some sweat stains on it.

The world had a bright red sky, complementing its red hot climate. The ground was also very hot, but bearable with the fact that the Mario Brothers were wearing shoes as opposed to being barefoot. Also, surrounding the ground that was walkable for Mario and Luigi was lava that would instantly burn them to a crisp if they ended up touching it. Nevertheless, they had to continue with their journey in order to get the Power Stars in this area.

"Well, let's get moving," Mario said as he was walking forward, getting his sights on the area around him. "A little movement will take our minds off this heat."

"I hope you're right Mario," Luigi replied who was right behind Mario while also seeing sweat stains appearing on this attire. "Otherwise we're going to eventually become cooked linguini." As they were walking down the pathway, they came across a drawbridge that open and closed in twenty second intervals. With the bridge being the only way that the Mario Brothers could continue on their journey, they would have to be quick, unless they wanted to become fried pastrami in the lava river below. Mario signaled for Luigi to stay back, as he would attempt to cross the other side of the drawbridge first.

"Watch me as I do it." Mario ordered as he got to the start of the drawbridge. Mario waited for the drawbridge to open up for him and then sprinted for the other end. Because the heat was so severe in this world, Mario was starting to cramp up as he was getting toward the other end of the bridge. "Dammit." Mario murmured as he had to pause and limp towards the other side of the bridge. Luckily for Mario, when the drawbridge was closing, it allowed Mario to do an easy slide the rest of the way. From Luigi's sight it was a gruesome sight to watch to see his brother limp like that, especially for someone who had just as much heroic prowess as he did.

"Poor Mario," thought Luigi as he was getting ready to perform the same feat as Mario. "I can definitely tell he didn't want me to see that." When Luigi performed it, he made the option of allowing the drawbridge to close up a bit, before leaping to the other bridge ramp, and sliding down it. This allowed him to get the least amount of cramps as he exerted little energy performing that maneuver. However, he slid the wrong way and ended up sliding on his face, which caused his face to make contact with the burning hot ground. "YOWWWWWWWWWWCH!" Luigi cried as he felt his being burnt up by the ground, which caused a big burn mark to appear from the top of his forehead and down to his left cheek.

When Mario saw Luigi approaching him, he gave him a slow clap indicating he was proud for his run to go better than his went. "Heh, next time I'll follow your lead Luigi." Both Mario Brothers let out a chuckle as Mario patted Luigi on the back. Mario then inspected Luigi's burn mark, and chuckled some more. "However, next time you should try not to land on your face so much. Daisy's going to have a heart attack when she sees the burn mark that's going to appear on your face."

"Yeah," Luigi said while trying to think of a comeback. "Well Peach would have one the way you were cramping."

"True, but by the time that happened, I made it to the bridge." Mario then tried to get up, thinking he could walk the cramp off, and realized that he was walking gingerly letting out a small groan each time he took a step. "Let's just get this world done and over with."

"Mario are you alright?" Luigi asked, concerned that Mario was having difficulty walking because of the cramps he had just suffered. "Do you want me to just take over from here. I don't think you can run more or less walk the rest of the way."

"No Luigi! I'm fine" Mario said in an irritated voice just wanting to move on with the mission. Luigi nodded silently as they proceeded further in the world. While they were walking on the road, they came across an area that looked like a jigsaw puzzle of Bowser. "Hey Luigi, come and take a look at this." The Mario Brothers were astonished as the platforms that made up the jigsaw puzzle were moving all over the place, giving Luigi an idea on how to help Mario's nagging leg cramps.

"So, the plan is to get past that jigsaw puzzle right?"

"Of course Luigi. Why?" Mario asked, seeing that Luigi was formulating his own idea to get past this point.

"It's the same thing with the drawbridge. We just have to allow the motion of the platforms to get us to the other side. With the cramps you're going through right now, you don't have to exert any energy on this part."

Mario got annoyed with Luigi's little comment about his craps. "Like I told you before Luigi. I'm FINE!" Mario then gave a glare to Luigi, indicating to Luigi that he should lay off the comment about his cramps.

"Alright Mario. I'm sorry. Now let's just get to work." The Mario Brothers positioned themselves at the platforms, allowing their rotations to work to their advantage. They stepped on to the next platform when they felt that it was the right opportunity to do so. Even if Mario didn't want to admit it, those cramps were getting more difficult to move as time went by having to deal with the sweltering heat. Thus, Mario was feeling grateful that Luigi came up with a plan such as this.

"Maybe I should apologize to Luigi." Mario thought as he was rubbing his legs in an effort to feel more comfortable. "He is just trying to look out for me." When they got to the other side of the platform, both Mario brothers took a few minutes to rest up . "Hey Luigi." Mario said, getting the attention of Luigi who was scouting out the area.

"Yeah what is it Mario?" Luigi asked.

"I wanted to apologize for yelling you like that. I just didn't want to make you feel like you had to babysit me at this point of our mission." Luigi offered Mario his hand, to which he gladly accepted as he stood back up, the cramping becoming more obvious as Mario was having a hard time just standing still.

"Don't worry about it Mario. But I must say that those cramps aren't looking that great. Here, put your weight on me, and let's finish this mission." Mario reluctantly agreed to this, as the Mario Brothers continued their trek against the ever increasing temperature, as the Mario Brothers were soaking in their sweat. "Oh geez." Luigi was panting as the heat was starting to overcome him as well as Mario. "We better find those dang Power Stars soon."

The Mario Brothers then saw what appeared to be a big platform containing several creatures that looked like cannonballs with horns on the top of the heads, glaring eyes, and green shoes. "And I thought Koopa were ugly." Mario murmured as he got a good look at the creatures.

"Perhaps they have the Power Stars that we are looking for." Luigi said as Luigi ran up to the platform, resorting to carry Mario on his back. When they got up to the platform, the creatures detected their presence. Because they didn't have any mouths to speaks, the way they decided to greet the Mario Brothers was to push them off the platform. With Mario on his back, Luigi threw Mario onto the platform to deal with the creatures that lay before them. Luigi, meanwhile, fell off the platform, with the lava almost touching him before he got up, and climbed onto the platform. "Alright, it's time to give these 'bullies' a taste of their own medicine." Both Mario Brothers tried to throw fireballs at the bullies, but they seemed to be unaffected by them. In a counterattack, two of the bullies ran up to try to push them off the ledge again and attempt to sink them to the lava below. However, Mario was able to lift the bully and throw it into the lava below, which caused it to explode.

"Hmm…" Mario thought, finding the way on how to defeat the bullies. "That's our ticket to beating these guys." Luigi, following suit, threw the bully that was going after him into the lava below having the same result. After two more bullies were thrown into the lava river below, a Huge bully came onto the platform, causing the platform to slowly sink into the lava, unbeknownst to the Mario Brothers.

"Hey Mario," Luigi said, getting Mario's attention. "You have to help me left that thing." Luigi ran over to Mario's position and taunted the huge Bully, causing it to run after them. The Mario Brothers then lifted the Huge bully together, casting it into the lava below, resulting in a huge explosion.

"OH YEAH!" The Mario Brothers yelled, giving each other high fives. The explosion followed with the six power stars coming from the lava into the middle of the platform.

"The Huge Bully must have had them." Mario said as he climbed back on to Luigi's back as Luigi went to grab the six Power Stars. Both Mario Brothers then realized that the lava platform was sinking as they saw lava coming from one side of what used to be a platform, scaring them. "Um, Luigi, you gotta get us out of here real quick."

"Yeah I know that." Luigi replied as he eyed the other side of the platform. He ran as fast as he could over to the other side of the platform, and escaped the clutches of the lava river just in time as the platform sunk to the lava below. Both brothers breathed a huge sigh of relief, as they had escaped near death yet again. "Oh great," Luigi thought looking at his legs. "Now I'm going to cramp up." Luigi then picked up Mario on his back, as they made their way back to the entry point of the world from which they came and got back to Toadstool Castle. Both brothers made their to a nearby bathroom, where they gulped down huge amounts of water in order to soothe down the cramping which they knew would last a few hours or so.

"Looks like we are going to have to wait for a little while in order for our cramps to go away." Mario said as they sat by a nearby wall from where the painting to the fire world was.

"Yeah I know." Luigi replied as he joined his brother, sitting to the right side of Mario as they rested up in order to continue their journey with fresh legs.


	22. A Little Act of Princess Courage

Princess Peach and Princess Daisy were in their cages sleeping off what seemed to be a very long day for them. Yesterday they were thinking about having a get together with their favorite people: the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead, they were hoping that those same heroes would do whatever was necessary in order to help them escape from their prison. What really insulted them however was the fact that they were made prisoners inside their own home.

Meanwhile, Bowser was still researching the secrets of the Power Stars when he came across something important in his research. The very thing that he was reading in his mind over and over again allowed his grin to become more and more sinister. "The most powerful configuration of the Power Stars is a magnificent object called the Grand Star. The Grand Star is the result of all of the castle's Power Stars being combined together in order to produce one gigantic star. The wielder of this powerful item would have the ability to become indestructible permanently until the Grand Star was removed from the wielder." The more he had fixated on the statement, the more he thought about that the Mario Brothers, who were going to hand deliver the Power Stars right to him.

"Once I'm done with those Mario Brothers," Bowser thought closing the book on the Power Stars as he had learned everything he needed to know. "These kingdoms will be mine." Just then a few Koopa troops came bursting out of the room, interrupting Bowser's chain of thought. "WHAT THE HEL- IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT THAT YOU GUYS HAD TO BARGE IN LIKE THAT?!" Bowser yelled, making the few Koopa nervous as well as instantly awakening the princesses out of their slumber.

"S-Sir," one of the Koopa troops answered, shaking uncontrollably. "He wants to speak to you again. You know the hooded one." Bowser was scratching his head in confusion as he thought the Koopa troops meant his apprentice.

"I threw my communicator away so that I didn't have to speak to my apprentice. His 'concern' is something that I just don't care about." Bowser replied as he proceeded to order the Koopa troops out.

"N-no S-sir," one of the other Koopa troops replied swallowing heavily as he knew Bowser's patience would run out at any moment. "Not that hooded one, the other guy, you know the secret ally." Bowser's just stood there for a second, now knowing who the Koopa was talking about. Bowser then let out a sigh of mild irritation as he proceeded to follow the Koopa troops into the Toadstool briefing room, where Bowser would be able to talk with the hooded figure privately.

"Let's just get this over with." Bowser murmured as he left the room that held the princesses, believing that they were still asleep. When he closed the door behind him, he locked the door so that the princesses would not think about escaping and running off to find the Mario Brothers. Bowser then walked over to the briefing room where he would have his conversation with his secret ally, who his apprentice didn't even know about.

"Hey I think he's gone." Daisy said as she woke up Princess Toadstool from her slumber. When Peach woke up, Daisy could she how stressful the situation for her has been. Peach's eyes were bloodshot due to both lack of sleep and the tears she had been shedding since her recent kidnapping, her hair style had been unkempt, her clothes were in tatters, and she had a small bruise on her face from where Bowser had punched her. Daisy could also tell that her best friend was scared. "Hey Peach it's alright. Bowser has left for a bit to talk to someone." Peach was visibly calmer now as she looked around to confirm Daisy's report that Bowser was nowhere in sight. She was able to let out a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless as she cleared her voice to speak.

"How…How long has it been since we've been stuck in these cages?" Peach asked, as she tried to rattle on them, with no luck whatsoever.

"I would say about a day or so." Daisy replied, as she sat down in the cage just as visibly exhausted as Peach about being trapped under Bowser's watch. When Peach looked back at her friend, she looked like how Peach was when Daisy saw her.

"Daisy, are you feeling ok?" Peach asked, resulting in Daisy letting out a small laugh which startled Peach. "What's so funny Daisy?" Peach's voice was now one of concern as she thought Daisy was laughing out of hysteria.

"The funny thing is," Daisy replied looking back at her friend with the same level of concern that Peach was showing. "I was about to ask you the same thing." Both girls then let out small giggles as it would be the only thing to crack a joke about in the depressing lifestyle of being Bowser's hostages. Peach then let out a few tears of her own, as Daisy put her hand through the cage and onto Peach's shoulder to comfort her. The cages, thankfully, had wide enough gaps in between the bars where they could be able to slip their arms and hands through which was their only way of showing comfort to each other during this tough time.

"I hate this you know." Peach responded as a few more tears came out of her eyes no matter how hard she tried to hold them back. "Why does Bowser have to kidnap us?"

"Just like any other greedy dictator wants to kidnap a powerful politician." Daisy responded as her fists were clenching in anger. "For power." Daisy then gave a small smile to Peach, as she returned the smile back. "But it could be worse. At least we have each other to ride out this storm together. And I'm sure those heroes of ours will be on their way to kick Bowser's tail and return this place back to normal."

"Yeah but," Peach responded as the look of concern was shot right back at Daisy. "What about this Ranger guy that Bowser and these Koopas talk about? It seems as if he has the power to kill M-Mario a-and L-Luigi." Peach's last words were interrupted by the choking of more tears coming out, while Daisy did her best to rationalize the Ranger's motives.

"What's weird is that the Ranger is a human, and yet he works for a Koopa." Daisy pondered this thought for a while before allowing herself to come to a final conclusion. "Perhaps he doesn't know what side he's working for." Peach then looked up at her friend in confusion as she looked back at her, determined that it was the right answer.

"How could you be so sure?" Peach asked.

"It makes sense," Daisy responded as she noted the vast differences between the Ranger and the Koopas that he was working for at the moment. "Think about it Peach. The Ranger looks like a human and Bowser and his Koopas are not. From what I've heard in conversations between Bowser and The Ranger. Bowser has to put on a 'façade'. A kind of mask that allows the Ranger to believe him. He even had to shed his own disguise the first time you and I made contact with him in the first stages of our kidnapping."

"But Daisy," Peach replied. "Bowser wore that disguise in order to infiltrate the castle and allow himself to get close with us in the bunker before kidnapping us there. He hasn't worn that disguise yet."

"That's my point Peach," Daisy responded as she explained more about the Ranger situation. "He hasn't had to yet because of the fact that the Ranger is busy trying to prepare himself for confrontations between the two brothers that the only way he really communicates with him is through some sort of voice communicator that only needs Bowser to project some type of voice that allows him to still act the disguise of someone that would appeal to the Ranger." Peach was startled that Daisy was able to rationalize things so clearly.

"Have you ever thought about being a psychologist of some sort?" Peach jokingly asked, causing Daisy to roll his eyes.

"I don't have time for that. Listening to people's problems could get boring after a while." Daisy replied, causing both princesses to giggle again as they sat back beneath the cages as a small period of silence fell between them two. After a few minutes, Daisy broke the silence. "Now if only there was some way in order to obtain that voice communicator." Daisy looked around all over the room from her vantage point in her cage. After a few seconds, Daisy found what seemed to be a voice communicator a few feet in front of Peach's cage. "Hey Peach."

"Yeah Daisy?"

"I think I have an idea on how we can convince that Ranger guy to join our side." Daisy said as she began to formulate an idea in her head.

"How so Daisy?"

"Well, the first thing that we should do is grab that voice communicator over there." Daisy then pointed to the object right in front of Peach's cage, to which Peach moved over to the front of the cage.

"Allow me then." Peach replied as she stretched out as far as she could until she was able to grab it. "Alright got it. What's next on the agenda?"

"The next part would be to…" Daisy said before being interrupted by a rattling on the nearby door, which was Bowser trying to enter back into the room. "Quick Peach hide it!" Daisy exclaimed which Peach gave a silent nod to before hiding the communicator within a slit in her outfit. Both girls breathed a sigh of relief as Bowser came bursting through the door, even more angered than when he had exited the door previously.

"That arrogant jerk." Bowser said to no one in particular, upset with the conversation he had with the aforementioned 'hooded figure'. "Who does he think he is trying to say my plan is doomed to fail? I have everything under control. The Mario Brothers will hand me the stars, I turn into a powerful being. All the meanwhile, my apprentice will distract those brothers long enough for them to become tired when they face me. Heck a bonus would be if that apprentice had the competence to actually kill those blasted plumbers." Bowser let out a small cackle as both princesses clenched their fists in anger.

"Not if we have anything to say about it you ugly turtle." Daisy thought as she eyed Peach who silently nodded back at her, already telling what she was thinking about. Even so, they were still worried about their heroes who were probably still out there chasing whatever they needed to in order to grab the Power Stars, sacrificing all they can in order for them to be rescued and carried away from the tyrant that put them in those cages. "Be strong my Luigi."

"Be strong my Mario." Peach thought as they went back to playing their part as helpless hostages under the whim of Bowser.


	23. Shifting Sand Land

"Alright Luigi," Mario said as he got up from the place they were sitting to rest. "I think it's time we travel to our next world."

"Yeah you said it Mario." Luigi replied as got himself up, brushing the ash from the previous world away that was stuck to his attire. "So where to next anyway?" Luigi asked, knowing Mario was the only one who knew where the worlds were. He then turned to looked Mario, who stared at the blank wall, his mouth agape. "Mario, you there bro?" Luigi waved his hand in front of Mario's face. Mario then proceeded to snatch it, and then let go, allowing Luigi to withdraw his hand away.

"Yeah I'm fine bro." Mario said as he inspected the blank wall closely, almost like he was expecting something that wasn't there. "It's just that I thought there would be a painting here for us to jump into."

"Do you remember a painting there the last time you came to this part of the castle?" Luigi asked as he came up to inspect the wall as well. Mario turned to look at Luigi, giving him a look of annoyance.

"Obviously I wouldn't be checking out this wall if I didn't feel there would be a painting there BEFORE!" There was a few minutes of silence between the two, as Luigi just stood silent as it had been awhile since Mario had angrily yelled at him before. Mario then sighed one of regret, not meaning to yell at Luigi like that. "Luigi I'm sorry at yelled at you like that." Mario then turned to look at Luigi with a somber expression. "It's just that this mission is getting to me you know. I guess the anger just built up into that one particular statement." Mario eyes got teary as Luigi put a hand on Mario's shoulder.

"Mario I know." Luigi said in a serious tone. "I feel the same way too." Luigi then put his hand on the blank wall, as his hand got sucked in through the wall. "WOAH!" yelled Luigi as he fell into the world, the painting having been the wall itself.

"Oh yeah now I remember." Mario said sheepishly as he proceeded to follow his brother into the new world.

The new world that came across reminded them of pictures that had seen about Ancient Egypt. The setting was desert like with sand everywhere as well as a few cactuses spread around the area. The peculiar thing about this world was that there was quicksand covering parts of the area. If the Mario Brothers were to step into that quicksand, then they could have been pulled into their deaths. Mario was able to get up quickly after falling through the world; however he had a tough time trying to find his brother.

"LUIGI," Mario yelled, as the wind was picking up, blowing sand everywhere and reducing Mario's visibility. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" For a few minutes, there was no response which left Mario worried. "Did the quicksand get him?" Mario thought giving him a lot of anxiety.

Luigi then emerged from the blanket of sand covering Mario's vision. Luigi was headfirst in a pile of sand, struggling to get his head out of the pile of sand. Luigi motioned for Mario to help by kicking his feet, which Mario allowed to breathe a sigh of relief before chuckling a bit to see Luigi in another one of his minor predicaments. Mario then tugged hard until he was able to pull Luigi out of the sand, causing Luigi to go flying into the air before falling to the ground again. Luigi then spit out the sand that was in his mouth, trying to brush off remaining sand particles from this tongue. "That was…horrible." Luigi said as he knew that was an understatement. Luigi then looked back at Mario, who was struggling to hold back another chuckle. "Don't…say anything." Luigi then gave a glare to Mario, which caused him to freeze his face back into a serious expression.

"Don't worry about it Luigi." Mario said as he offered a hand to get Luigi up from the sand. "I'm just glad you weren't swept away by this wind, or worse."

"Yeah, don't think I would been much help if I got my face deep in quicksand." The brothers chuckled a little after that statement, Mario more so as he did think Luigi was in quicksand before. "Well, let's get to it." Luigi said as he pointed more towards the target area they were looking at for the Power Stars.

"You said it." Replied Mario as they moved on over towards the other part of the new world. As they were walking, Mario spotted an area that was heavily concentrated with Koopa troops, who luckily couldn't see them as heavy winds were giving the Mario Brothers some camouflage even with their brightly colored outfits. "That must be where the Power stars are at. Why else would there be a heavy concentration of Koopas out there?"

"Well then what are we doing standing out here?" Luigi asked rhetorically.

"Trying to think of how we are going to access that pyramid. It's all fenced off, so we can't go the direct route." Mario replied as he went into a thinker pose to formulate an idea of how to gain access to the pyramid. Meanwhile, Luigi was scouting around the perimeter to find a backdoor way to the pyramid. After a few feet of walking, he came across a bridge that worked as a backdoor way to the pyramid, in which they could enter undetected by the Koopa troops.

"Hey Mario, come over here." Luigi said as Mario hurried to Luigi's position. "You want your way to the pyramid? You got one…" Luigi then pointed to the bridge. However, if one were to fall off the bridge, they would succumb to the quicksand underneath. Another hazard that appeared before them were that there were large blocks of steel that happened to be rolling back and forth at specific points of the bridge. The only silver lining was that there was a hole on one face of the block that the Mario Brothers could easily slip under and not be harmed by the crushing weight. Luigi just stared wide eyed at the impending harm that could come before them, while Mario got into a heroic stance, ready to face the danger.

"Well, ready Luigi?" Mario asked as he made his first steps to the bridge.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Luigi replied as he got to the bridge too. After walking on the bridge for a few seconds, they encountered one of the many blocks that would be in their way while trying to cross the bridge.

"Here we go…" Mario thought as he slid under the hole of the block successfully as he got past the first hazard. Luigi was able to have the same result successfully, after gaining the courage from Mario's successful attempt at that. The next few blocks were of a repeat encounter as they were able to successfully slide underneath those blocks that were in their way. They then got to the last block where Mario repeated the same successful result. When Luigi tried it, he had tripped on a cracked part of the stone bridge, and landed on the surface hard. With the block, ready to crush him. Luckily, he did a side roll as he just got past the block's crushing dive.

"Oh my…" Luigi murmured as he walked towards the end of the bridge to join Mario. "Well what's next on the agenda Mario?"

Mario just looked at the sandstorm some more, as the Koopa troops still didn't notice the Mario Brothers presence. "Use the cover of the sandstorm and burn some Koopa tail." Mario then put on his fire flower power up as Luigi did the same thing.

"Works for me." Luigi said as the Mario Brothers slowly infiltrated the pyramid grounds.

Meanwhile, all the Koopa troops were on watch for the Mario Brothers and were surprised that they weren't able to detect their presence. "Curse these bloody sandstorms." One of the Koopa troops said to his partner, who was trying to scout the Mario Brothers through binoculars. "You see any of those damn plumbers."

"Not to my knowledge mate," the other Koopa replied as his eyes glued to the binoculars. "But this sandstorm shouldn't last, so we should be able to detect them soon."

"I hope for both of our sakes your right."

Mario and Luigi spotted their first Koopas up ahead, who still haven't seen them thanks to the cover of the sandstorm. "LET'S DO THIS!" The brothers yelled out together that was thankfully out of ear sight for the Koopa troops up ahead. Within a few more seconds, they quickly dispatched the Koopas with a couple of fireballs. The scouts that were on top of the pyramid saw the fire blast down below, but couldn't make out anything more than that.

"What the heck was that?" The Koopa troop said to his partner, as his was looking at the area of the fire blast through his binoculars.

"Who do you think? Rhetorically asked the other Koopa as he drew his sword. "It's the Mario Brothers."

The Mario Brothers kept the pace up by sneakily going from one area containing Koopa troops to another, eliminating them quickly and quietly. After taking care of the main bulk of the force from the ground, they concentrated going to the top of the pyramid.

"Not so fast Mario brothers." One of the Koopa troops shouted from the top of the pyramid, drawing his sword out. "You want these Power Stars? You're going to have to go through us!"

"Yeah when haven't I heard that before…" thought both Mario brothers as they quickly ascended to the top of the pyramid. With a few fireballs thrown at the top of the pyramid, the two scouts were defeated. With the last of the Koopa troops defeated, Mario and Luigi entered the top room of the pyramid, containing the six power stars that they needed. "YES!" The Mario brothers shouted as they grabbed their power stars and proceeded to exit the world, before the sandstorm got too unbearable for them to move.

Arriving back on Toadstool Castle, Mario decided on their next move. "Well, we got all the paintings that I know are in the basement. Guess we can go to the red star door now." Luigi grinned happily as his fists were clenched, looking ready to pick a fight with The Ranger.

"Yeah, and it's time for payback!" Luigi replied, still thinking about how the Ranger hurt both Mario Brothers as well as insulted them by calling them traitors to the Mushroom Kingdom. Both Mario Brothers made it to the red star door, expecting a pit to fall down to in order to challenge the Ranger for the second time. However, instead there was a bluish portal that was in their way of the noticeable pit that was sticking out of the ground. "Hey Mario," Luigi thought scratching his head in confusion. "Have you ever seen this portal thing before?"

"No I believe I have not." Mario replied who was also confused at the mere presence of the portal standing before them. "But what I do believe is that we have to go through the portal and face whatever lies out there in order to go to the pit thing over there."

"Then let's do it!" Yelled Luigi. With that remark, both brothers entered the blue portal, ready to tackle whatever laid in front of them.


	24. Dire Dire Docks

When they entered the portal, the Mario Brothers found themselves thrown into a lake that was surrounded by tall mountains all around. The sky was also a darkened baby blue as it was drawing night, which meant that it would be too dark to be able to swim properly soon.

"Hmm," Luigi said as he looked around the top of the lake, with no pathway to be seen. "It looks like the only way forward is down Mario."

"Looks like you're right Luigi." Mario replied as they swam underwater, revealing a pathway indicated by a yellow arrow by one of the alcoves of the underwater setting. "It's like they want us to find Bowser faster without the guesswork." Mario thought as the brothers swam for the alcove.

Meanwhile, by the alcove, a scout Koopa saw the Mario Brothers coming their way. He pulled out his communicator, ready to alert the other Koopas at his base that he had detected the plumbers. "They're here. ACTIVATE THE WHIRLPOOL!" Yelled the Koopa scout. Instantly, one Koopa troop made it to a nearby switch and pulled it. All of a sudden, a giant whirlpool was picking up at the bottom of the lake, growing larger and larger with very minute passing by. It eventually caught up to the altitude to where Mario and Luigi were at.

Suddenly, Mario felt being sucked into the whirlpool, motioning that he couldn't move. "HELP LUIGI!" Mario yelled as he struggled to break free of the whirlpool sucking him into certain death. Luigi grabbed Mario's hand just before he became unreachable and attempted to pull him out with all his strength.

"Hold on Mario. I got you." Luigi called out as he tugged harder and harder, with Mario not letting go one bit. After a few minutes, Luigi pulled Mario out of the whirlpool's clutches as they retreated to one of the walls of the underwater lake and took a few seconds to gather themselves.

"Thanks Luigi." Mario said as he stared back at the whirlpool, realizing that he was close to certain death had he been in that whirlpool for a couple more minutes.

"No problem Mario." Luigi replied as they decided to go around the edge of the underwater lake, which allowed them to bypass the whirlpool completely.

The scout at the alcove became worried since he knew that the Mario Brothers had found the way to bypass the whirlpool entirely. "Crap, I gotta warn the rest of the troops." The scout Koopa thought as he retreated father into the base. Meanwhile, the Mario brothers had made it to the alcove that the scout Koopa was just at. The Mario brothers then discovered the opening that allowed them to press further into the way out of this world.

"Come on Luigi," Mario said activating his fire flower power up." I don't think we are the only two out here."

'What makes you say that Mario?" Luigi asked while also activating his fire flower power up.

"That whirlwind didn't activate by itself. I believe that the Koopas built a whirlpool in case we ever got to this point. They tried to end the journey here for us." Mario then clenched his fists in anger as Mario and Luigi swam further into the alcove. "Well, we didn't come this far to give up now or end up dead by a couple of rejected excuses for turtles." After a few minutes they had come across the Koopa base that was fortunately at a terrestrial setting.

"Looks like we got another fight on our hands Mario." Luigi said as he came ashore, resting on a platform looking on at the huge Koopa force gathering to meet the Mario Brothers.

"Good, I want to make sure they all fry." Mario replied as he joined the same platform Luigi was on. They then walked over to the center of the base, where several divisions of Koopa troops surrounded them on all sides of the base. The Mario brothers then studied the different platforms the Koopa were standing on, which were entirely made out of wood. "Wood eh…" thought Mario as he looked back at his fire flower attire. "Well fire burns great with wood."

One of the Koopa troops picked up a bull horn and turned it on, wanting the Mario Brothers to pay attention to him. "ALRIGHT MARIO BROTHERS! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! SURRENDER NOW AND WE WILL SPARE YOUR LIVES. RESIST, AND BE CUT DOWN BY A PAIR OF ARROWS! I'LL START THE COUNTDOWN NOW!"

"Luigi, aim for the wooden planks to your right. I'll aim for the wooden planks to the left."

"3…"

"Ok then what's the next step because I know that won't take care of anyone."

"2…"

"Then dive back underwater, resurface and take out the remaining troops. They will be archers, so nothing we can't handle."

"1…"

"NOW!" yelled the Mario Brothers as they proceeded to cast out large fireballs, they burnt up most of the platforms, causing most of the troops to either burn up or fall down to their deaths due to the crushing blow of dropping down from a large height. A few of them were still alive due to landing on a fortunate spot and casted arrows from their bows. Luckily, Mario and Luigi dodged them as they dived back underwater, allowing them to play like undercover sharks in the water, as the Koopas didn't know where they had gone on to.

"JUST SHOOT ANYWHERE IN THE WATER!" yelled the Koopa in the loudspeaker, angry that he had let them get away. "IT SHOULD LAND ON SOME POINT ON THEM!" The Koopa archers shot in the water, careful to allow each Koopa's arrow to have a considerable amount of space. As the arrows were shot in the underwater, some arrows had nearly hit the Mario Brothers while some were not even close. "AGAIN!" The Koopa troops reloaded their arrows and attempted to fire again. The Mario Brothers however, sprang up from the water and had their fun at firing at the remaining Koopa, destroying what was left of the garrison. They then searched the corpse of the Koopa with the loudspeaker, which contained another six power stars.

"So there was a point to being stuck in this portal!" Luigi exclaimed as he gave Mario a nudge on the shoulder.

"Yeah I guess." Mario replied as the Mario Brothers soon found themselves out of the portal, due to the Power stars being found, and back into Toadstool Castle. The portal jumped back to its original position before The Ranger activated the switch which allowed the exposed pit before to now be available to go into.

"LET'S DO THIS!" yelled the Mario Brothers as they jumped through the pit, ready for their second fight with The Ranger.


	25. The Mario Brothers vs The Ranger Part II

The Mario Brothers fell down for what seemed like a few minutes until they reached the new arena that they were going to fight The Ranger. The fiery bright setting of this arena with the bright red sky, the lava at the very bottom of the arena and the very hot climate contrasted to the dark and cool temperature setting of the first arena. This arena was a bit bigger than the first arena, with more room to move around. However, this new arena has the tendency, in a period of ten minutes, to lean to the right or to the left at random for one minute, which would allow someone to fall into the lava below easily.

Mario and Luigi stirred up, unfortunately getting a nasty hit on their heads on the way down. "Oh my aching head," Mario said as he stood up and rubbed his head a bit before attempting to wake Luigi up. "LUIGI WAKE UP!" Luigi suddenly opened his eyes and was now alert.

"Oh my," Luigi said as he got up to his feet, and rubbed his head a bit. "How long have I been out bro?"

"I would say for about a good ten minutes." Mario replied as he looked around the arena to find The Ranger not present.

"Ten Minutes!" exclaimed Luigi as he suddenly got into a fighter stance anticipating the presence of The Ranger. "How can I be conked out so bad, and where the HECK IS THE RANGER?!"

"You got me Luigi. I don't know where is he, which scares me a bit because he could be hiding anywhere, looking for the perfect chance to strike. Just don't keep your guard down." The Mario brothers went out in different parts of the arena to search for The Ranger. Mario went to the left side of the arena while Luigi went to the right side. As they spent more time in this arena, they felt the same effects as they did when they were at the fiery world. "Oh geez," Mario thought as he walked to the edge of the arena, sitting down for a bit while getting a bearing on his surroundings. "I hope I don't get those cramps again. Heh, maybe The ranger has them and that's why we can't find them."

Luigi has the same mindset as he realized that the hot temperatures could overcome the Mario Brothers eventually and they had to strike The Ranger now and end the battle quickly. "Man if that Ranger doesn't get here," Luigi said as a gloomy expression set upon his face. "We are going to have to usher in the retreat."

Meanwhile The Ranger had appeared from a secret alcove from below the arena, ready to strike the Mario Brothers. "Time to end this debacle and bring down these wretched tyrants." The Ranger thought as shot a grappling arrow into the ledge of the arena. The arrow didn't strike the very edge of the arena, so Luigi did not notice, still giving The Ranger the element of surprise. He then presses a button on the bow to allow him to get to the position where he placed the arrow. He then grabbed the edge of the arena with his hands and leaped high while able to get a good kick on Luigi's face. Luigi, surprised at this action, fell back a few feet onto the middle of the arena.

"YOWWW!" Luigi shouted as he got back up and saw the Ranger right in front of him, his presence giving Luigi anger. "You son of a-"Luigi was then suddenly interrupted by The Ranger.

The Ranger made used his index finger to give a no-no-no motion to Luigi as he pulled out his bow. "You mustn't curse in front of a royal setting such as this. It gives off your tyrant impression. If you want to convince me you aren't tyrants, which you won't anyway, you should start with the way you conduct yourself."

Mario then got to where his brother was as Luigi got up quickly as both were ready to face The Ranger. "TYRANT?!" Mario asked as his fists were clenched, ready to pound on The Ranger. "Look who's talking. You're allowing Bowser to do all of these horrible things to the princesses!"

"You feigning concern for the princesses won't convince me so easily." The Ranger replied." I know you all too well. Besides like I've told you, this whole rouse has been a stage just to lead you here in preparation for your downfall. Even if I can't stop you, Bowser will and bring peace to this kingdom."

"Do you honestly believe that load of crap that Bowser has been handing you?" Mario asked, causing The Ranger to cast an angry glare at Mario's direction. "You've been duped! Bowser wants you to believe that everything has been staged. BUT ITS NOT! It's been a ploy to get you to join in on his wretched scheme. This is a REAL kidnapping situation. Bowser doesn't want to save the Mushroom Kingdom or Sarasaland. HE WANTS TO ANNEX THEM INTO HIS EMPIRE!"

"SHUT UP!" The Ranger shouted, tempted to fire an arrow from his bow, but yielded until he got out one more statement. "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO MY MASTER THAT WAY! Without him, there would be no peace between the three kingdoms. It was you two that caused the discord in the first place. I will end it one way or another. Now I will give you one last chance. If you exit this world, if you exit this kingdom, if you go back to where all three of us came from, I will spare your lives. REFUSE MY REQUEST and you two DIE! Choose now because my patience is growing thin!"

The Mario Brothers looked at each other for a second, knowing exactly what their decision was going to be. They equipped their fire flower power ups quickly, The Ranger smiling already knowing that there was going to be a fight on his hands. "HELL NO!" Both brothers yelled, getting into a fighter stance. The Ranger did the same thing as he pulled a bow and put onto the string of his bow, ready to release it.

"So it has been settled then," The Ranger replied solemnly as he got ready to release the arrow. "You two will DIE!" The Ranger then shot the arrow from his bow, inciting a quick dodge from both brothers. The Mario Brothers decided to split up for this fight, as the Ranger had a tough time dodging attacks from different directions at the same time. The Ranger, knowing this, decided to concentrate on Luigi first as he was the real one that was a threat to him. "The green one is the person that actually wants to kill me while the red one is just trying to brainwash me to join his side." The ranger thought as he leapt towards Luigi and kicked him in his torso, sending him flying a few feet away to the left side of the arena. Luigi stood up and then shot a fireball toward the Ranger's direction, emitting a simple dodge from Luigi. Meanwhile, Mario was trying to still convince The Ranger was fighting for the wrong side.

"Ranger," Mario said as he cast a fireball in front of The Ranger, intentionally trying to miss him and direct attention to the Ranger, which Mario had successfully done as now The Ranger was fully focused on him. "Think about it, if you really were fighting on the right side, wouldn't your job be to escort the princesses away from the castle due to the fact that us supposed tyrants were coming to try and stop you?!" The Ranger ran up and slammed Mario down with his foot before picking him up and throwing him in Luigi's direction, causing both of them to fall down heavily on each other with a sickening thud. Both Mario Brothers stirred for a few seconds until they got up to their feet.

"Please," The Ranger said as he drew another arrow from his bow. "My master is doing a great job in protecting the princesses from you. "

"Really and how does he ensure you of that?" Mario asked, as he stood up to his feet and walked up to the Ranger until he was a few feet away, The ranger knowing that he was close enough to strike him from his falchion. However, he humored Mario's request before he would strike him down.

"He gives me a voice communicator which allows to stay in touch and allows me to get updates on how the princesses are doing." The Ranger took the communicator from Mario and showed it to him.

"Turn in on right now." Mario said in a serious voice to The Ranger. "Show me that you can."

The Ranger paused, surprised to see such a request from Mario but he still wanted to humor him so he turned it on anyway. "Bowser, come in Bowser." The Ranger said as he waited for a reply. The Ranger was surprised that Mario had not attempted a strike yet, nor did Luigi who waited with him patiently until he got a response. "What are they doing?" The Ranger thought as he looked back at the Mario Brothers, who hadn't moved a muscle yet. "They should strike me down now when they have the chance."

Meanwhile, at Toadstool Castle, both princesses were asleep trying to rest while Bowser wasn't fixated on them. Bowser instead was fixated on preparing everything for the move to a new base stationed at the very top of Toadstool castle, with a Koopa advisor to give him status updates. "Is everything going according to my specifications?" Bowser asked, trying to sound as calm as he could as he knew victory would be impending once the Mario Brothers had found them.

"Yes," the Koopa advisor said, to which Bowser responded with a wicked grin. "The arena has been built as well as the cages that the princesses will be stuck in once the battle commences. We also have a secret gauntlet built in order to ward off any other 'surprises' that might face us as you deal with those plumbers."

"Excellent," Bowser replied as he noticed that the princesses were still asleep. "Why don't you show me then? The princesses are asleep, so they shouldn't be any threat right now to my plans."

"Yes sire." The advisor replied as he took Bowser to another Big Red Star Door. The door opened, allowing them passage up to the highest point in the tower, and from there to the arena that they were constructing. With the big slam of the door, the princesses finally stirred up.

"What the…" Peach said who was still feeling sleepy after being rudely awakened.

"Looks like that big dinosaur's gone." Daisy said as she had much more energy than Peach. "Anything on that voice communicator you got there?" Daisy then pointed to Peach, who had the voice communicator on a secret compartment in her dress.

"Oh yeah," Peach said as grabbed the voice communicator. "Give me one second." Peach pressed a button that turned on the communicator, and then another button to playback previously recorded conversations.

"_Bowser, come in Bowser"_ The voice communicator echoed.

"Who is that?" Peach asked as she didn't know whose voice that was. "I haven't heard that voice before ever."

"That could be The Ranger." Daisy said as she urged Peach to press the communicate button in order to speak with them. "Hurry and turn in on."

Peach turned on the communicator button. "Hello is this The Ranger." Peach asked, wanting to confirm the Ranger's identity.

The voice communicator finally erupted Peach's statement from The Ranger's own. Mario froze on the spot more, with The Ranger now in even more surprise. "Why is making that gesture. It's as almost that he's stunned to have her speak?" The Ranger thought in even more confusion. He then addressed himself to Peach. "Ah yes, this is The Ranger. Can I get an identity conformation?"

"This is Princess Toadstool, or-"Peach said before being interrupted by Mario's uttering of her nickname.

"Peach…" Mario said as he tried so hard to block off the tears in his eyes, finally being able to hear the princess speak, confirming to Mario that she was alive and well. Luigi, who had finally gotten the courage to come close to the presence of the Ranger, was stunned to hear Peach's voice. Mario, knowing that Luigi was close behind and seeing the tears in his eyes, knew what to do order to get The Ranger to finally know whose side he was working for. Mario got to his knees with Luigi doing the same, confusing The Ranger even more.

"Why are they doing this?" The ranger thought, confused of what to do at this point. He then addressed his voice communicator. "Can you confirm that the other princess is with you?"

"Princess Daisy?" Peach asked.

"Yes."

"She's right here with me." Peach then handed the voice communicator to Daisy, who took it and pressed the communicate button.

"Hello Ranger," Daisy said, getting Luigi to emit even more tears from his face. "My name is-" Daisy said before being interrupted by Luigi.

"D-Daisy." Luigi said now having tears in his eyes.

Confused by what was going around him, The Ranger took a deep breath trying to process that new information in before speaking back into the communicator. "What the HELL is going on around here?" The Ranger asked, getting stressed that the situation was becoming more complicated than he initially thought.

"I guess you need to know what is really going on here Ranger." Daisy replied before taking a deep breath before continuing, ready to reveal everything to the ranger what Bowser has done to them ever since he showed his face the first time he stepped into the Mushroom Kingdom. "Well, I don't know what you heard about Bowser, but he's the real villain here. Ever since he showed up, he has been nothing been trouble for both the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland. When he kidnapped us the first time, he had taken us to his castle in the territory he calls the Darklands. We had been stranded there for a few days before Mario and Luigi had saved us from his wrath and threw him into a lava pit. They then carried us back to the castle without any incentive for money, or fame. They wanted to help mostly for their taste of adventure. Then the war on our castle broke out a day ago. I assume you knew this was going to happen?"

The Ranger felt silent and motionless. "Could this all be true? Have I been working for the wrong side this all time?" The Ranger swallowed heavily before continuing to speak. "H-He told me that it was just a staged kidnapping. And all this talk of kidnapping, he said he wanted to help the kingdoms, not ruin them. He said he was a benevolent human ruler just trying to build a relationship between the humans and the Koopas."

Daisy fell silent for a second, now realizing the extent of the brainwashing that Bowser has done for him. "You have it wrong Ranger." Daisy said as she pressed the communicator to her lips, wanting the message to come out as clearly as she could. "Bowser is no human. He's a big Koopa that looks like he merged with a dinosaur. That human façade you saw was just a disguise you saw."

The Ranger gripped the voice communicator, the inner rage increasing knowing how he had been cheated and lied to this whole time. The Ranger was breathing heavily in anger as a few tears were streaming down his face. "How could I have been so stupid?" The ranger thought.

"Look it's not your fault. You couldn't have known the true evil that Bowser was until-" Daisy then froze in fear as Bowser came out of the Big Red Star Door.

"Excellent," Bowser said as he was devilishly grinning. "The arena's completed and now all I have to do is move those princesses to-" Bowser suddenly was cut off when he looked at the princesses, seeing that they had the voice communicator to The Ranger. "HEY GIVE THAT BACK YOU WRETCHED WHORES!" Bowser was furious as he charged up to the cages that held the princesses. He snatched the voice communicator from the princesses, his sharp claws cutting both the arms of the princesses. The Princesses screamed in pain, which was heard through the voice communicator.

Mario and Luigi and the Ranger were all enraged by the screams. "Hello is this thing on?" Bowser asked, hopeful that the Ranger didn't hear anything that just happened a few seconds ago.

"Oh yeah, this FUCKING thing is on Bowser." The Ranger viciously replied as Bowser knew that he was caught in his ploy.

"Ranger, um this isn't what it looks like."

"Oh really, WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE THEN?!"

"Um…" Bowser froze before thinking of what to do next. Bowser then shut off the communicator before destroying it completely, knowing he couldn't say anything to bring him back into his side. "Well, he played his part enough already." Bowser thought as he shifted his attention back to the Princesses. "You owe me one new apprentice. "Bowser said as he unlocked both Princess Peach and Princess Daisy's cages. He then grabbed them with much resistance as bowser dragged them to his new arena.

"Where are you taking us?" Daisy asked, demanding to know where she and her best friend were going.

"You'll learn soon enough." Bowser replied, cackling menacingly as he went back through the Big Red Star Door he came out of, bringing the princesses with him.

Meanwhile, back at the lava arena, The Ranger was enraged beyond belief. "So this is how you use me?" The ranger asked himself at a low growl before throwing the voice communicator to the ground. "WELL HERE'S WHAT I THINK OF YOU!" The ranger yelling to no one in particular as he destroyed the voice communicator with the falchion, surprising the Mario Brothers as they didn't know that he had that weapon or that he was enraged by being betrayed. Afterward, The Ranger looked back at the Mario Brothers. "I'm so sorry that I mistook you for the villains that I've been trying to stop. I was at his bloody side the while time and I didn't realize it. Some hero I am." The ranger sighed as he stood up and stared at the surrounding area in front of him, trying to find peace within himself. The Ranger hated criminals just as any person, but Bowser gave him a new sense of hatred that wouldn't let him go. It wasn't bowser being a criminal that angered The Ranger, it was the fact that Bowser allowed himself to control him that troubled him.

The Mario Brothers went to The Ranger in an attempt to comfort him. "Hey come on man," Mario replied as he nudged him in the elbow, to which The Ranger flinched a bit. "You didn't know that Bowser was a villain to begin with. Besides, with the three of us working together we could-" Mario was then cut off by a sudden shaking of the arena, indicating that the platform was ready to lean. Unfortunately for the three of them, the arena was going to lean in such a way that the three of them would be at the bottom, meeting an inevitable fate with the lava.

"Mario, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Luigi yelled as the three of them climbed up to the top of the arena. "Where's the damn exit to this place!" Luigi was searching around, but couldn't seem to find it.

"Follow me Mario Brothers." The Ranger said as he directed them to a warp pipe that would take them back to the basement of Toadstool Castle. All of a sudden, a few Koopa troops came out of the pipe to block their way.

"Not so fast Mario Brothers and now ex-Ranger." One of the Koopa troops said, angering The Ranger even more. "You aren't going anywhere unless you come to surrender to us." The Mario Brothers thought of what they could do, using their fire flower power up would cause them to get heat exhaustion even more, which is why they didn't bother to use it at the fire world the previous time there.

The Ranger then drew his sword and slashed one of the Koopa dead, taunting the other ones to come after them. Instantly, the Koopa troops went after them at the ever tilting arena, causing Mario and Luigi to worry about the fate of their new ally. "JUST GO! Do whatever you can to stop that bloody maniac!" The ranger ordered as he continued his fight with the few Koopa troops that were trying to kill him. "By the way take this." The Ranger threw another key in Luigi's direction. "This is the key to the attic of Toadstool castle. It will allow to finish up the paintings there as well as save the princesses. NOW GO!"

"But YOU'LL DIE!" Mario yelled as he attempted to run up to him in order to help battle the Koopas.

"JUST DO IT!" The Ranger responded as he continued his fight with the Koopas. Seeing how it was pointless to argue with him, Mario and Luigi retreated back to the warp pipe, ending up back at the basement of Toadstool Castle just in front of the Big Red Star Door they entered.

"We have to go back for him Mario." Luigi said as he tried to go back through the Big Red Star Door.

"Forget it Luigi." Mario said, angry at himself for not trying to save The Ranger. "We shouldn't let his sacrifice go in vain. Now let's go off that villain so that we can honor our comrade." Luigi silently nodded as they went back to the main hall of the castle, silent yet determined to continue on with the mission.

Meanwhile, The Ranger was still fighting off the Koopa troops, who were determined to off the ex-apprentice while dealing with the Mario Brothers. "Once we are done offing you sorry as-, we're going to capture the Mario Brothers and show them the same undignified fate that we are going to give you by tossing you into the lava." One of the Koopa troops said as the rest of them chuckled with them.

"I don't think so." The Ranger replied as he quickly took out an electric arrow, and shooting it at one of the Koopas causing a chain reaction to the other Koopas around him, killing them instantly as their heartbeats ceased , causing them to plunge into the lava below. The Ranger had little time to smile at his own success as the arena tilted too much for him to handle and he was falling down greatly into what could have been the fate for him. "Only got one shot at this." The Ranger thought as he shot a grappling arrow at the tallest point of the arena. It took a while for the arrow to reach the top point, and at that time the Ranger's cape was being singed from being in contact with the lava. The Ranger pressed the button, and he was able to reel himself into the top point of the arena, and fall down into the alcove that he was at previously. "I'll kill you for this Bowser." The ranger thought as exhaustion was taking over him. "Soon enough I will." The Ranger then collapsed into a sleep into his alcove as his body needed the rest from what he has just done.


	26. The Next Floor

Mario and Luigi stayed silent as they walked on up towards the door leading to the attic of Toadstool Castle. While they understood that The Ranger made his sacrifice in order to allow the Mario Brothers to continue on with their mission, they couldn't help but feel that they could have done more in order to get him out of that situation. Mario, while torn up about it, wasn't feeling as horrible as Luigi was who always thought The Ranger was a villain that could not be saved into becoming an ally. "How could I have said so those things about him." Thought Luigi as guilt began to overtake him while fumbling around for the attic key. Once he found it, he fumbled with the door lock until it opened up, giving the access to the higher part of Toadstool Castle.

"Let's finish this!" Mario yelled out as both brothers thought that would be the last obstacle that they had to pass in order to get to Bowser. When they went up the stairs that the door contained, however, they realized that it was another floor to the castle. "Wait seriously…" Mario thought as he entered the floor, seeing to trace of Bowser or no trace of any Koopa troops in the area.

"Don't tell me we got to go through more of these paintings." Luigi grumblingly said as he stepped into the new floor of the Mushroom Kingdom. The entry floor was composed of a rotunda having several paintings around the area of the rotunda. There were also a few more doors toward the outer wall of the rotunda, which contained rooms that housed even more paintings for the Mario Brothers. There was also a staircase that would take them to an even higher point of Toadstool Castle. Mario spotted this immediately and thought it would be a good idea to go see if they could bypass this floor.

"Hey Luigi, I think I found a way to bypass this floor." Mario said as he and Luigi made it up the nearby staircase. When they got to the top of it, they spotted another Big Red Star Door. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Mario asked in utter annoyance, seeing yet another Big Red Star Door that would not budge for them. "Great, now we actually got to do these stupid worlds." Mario punched the Star Door hard with his fist, indicating his level of frustration with them.

"Mario, do you want to rest for a bit?" Luigi asked, concerned with the mental wellbeing of his brother. Mario turned back to Luigi, feeling a little embarrassed he had just caused that sporadic outburst of rage.

"No I'm fine Luigi. I promise I won't do that again." Mario went back downstairs with his head down, with Luigi following him suspiciously believing that their mission was getting to both of them as Luigi was feeling a sense of inner rage himself for having to do this mission. However, he was able to cope with it better. "Look, just follow me alright. Hopefully we can get these paintings done soon." Mario walked over to a blank wall and was prepared to jump inside it. Luigi, who was confused by the actions that Mario was about to take, tried to stop him.

"Mario…you do know that it's a blank wall right?" Luigi asked concerned that Mario was going to bust head badly trying to attempt such a stunt. Mario sighed as he looked back at Luigi with the same irritated look he gave to the Big Red Star Door.

"Look at the mirror behind you." Mario replied as he jumped at the wall, disappearing into what seemed like another world for the Mario Brothers to tackle.

"Behind me…" Luigi murmured before turning around to see that Mario was indeed correct. The mirror revealed a painting that was similar to another painting encountered at the main hall a good day or so ago. "Well, here goes a nothing." Luigi murmured to himself as he jumped into the same blank wall as his brother, ready to tackle on their next world.

Meanwhile, Bowser had successfully dragged the princesses into their new cages aboard his new arena that he built for his big battle for the Mario Brothers. Bowser was still ticked off that Peach and Daisy made The Ranger switch sides so suddenly when his entire plan was working. Bowser threw the princess into the cages with brute strength, sending a good amount of pain towards both Peach and Daisy's shoulders which caused them to whelp in pain. Bowser just let out a chuckle in amusement of this discovery. "Serves you two right," Bowser said as he cast angry glares upon the princesses. "For running my apprentice."

"Why do you care anyway?" Peach replied at Bowser, causing Bowser to focus his attention on her. "If I remember correctly, you were going to off him anyway."

"While that may be true Peach, I was going to tell him AFTER KILLING THE MARIO BROTHERS!" Bowser shouting angrily the last part of her statement, causing Peach to be shaken yet again.

"Any second he could blow a fuse and off both Daisy and I." Peach thought as she edged away from Bowser into the back part of her cage, and laid down.

Daisy, seeing her friend seeing visibly shaken again, cast an angry glare at Bowser, which caused Bowser to glare straight back at her. "Can you at least tell me why it's so dark in here?" Daisy asked as she had to squint hard just to catch a glimpse at Bowser. "I can barely see five feet in front of me."

Bowser irritably sighed before clearing his throat to respond. "It's because this part of the world is charged with all the Power Stars brought here. It's sort of a sign to indicate that those blasted plumbers are here with my goods. Once they are brought to my hand, you'll be able to see all the new nuances of my domain here." Bowser said with a cackle as he prepared himself to leave to check on the progress of the Koopa base installation below.

"But wait," Daisy said, stopping Bowser instantly in his tracks. "If this place doesn't light up until the Power Stars were collected, how could you have built this arena and the base below."

"Surely you've heard of the great technology such as flashlights and spotlights my naïve princess." Bowser responded with a taunting chuckle, angering Daisy even more which caused her to rattle her cage. "Of course I had to turn them off here in order to conserve energy and all that eco environment crap the Mushroom Kingdom preaches. Think of being surrounded in darkness as punishment as trying to interfere with my grand plan." Bowser then set off in a warp pipe to oversee the Koopa base construction.

Daisy then sighed as she rolled back in her cage as tears rolled down her face. She was really scared, not because of the darkness and not because of Bowser, but because she and Peach were helpless at this point to try to help the Mario Brothers continue on their journey. "Oh Mario Brothers…," Daisy thought as she laid down while muffling cries away from Peach's ear sight trying to sleep. "We really need you now."


	27. Snowman's Land

Mario and Luigi entered into a world similar to the world they had faced a day and a half ago.

_Flashback 36 Hours Ago_

_The Mario Brothers landed on their next world, which appeared to be a snowy mountain that was enormous in height. It would be a long fall if there was an unfortunate mishap if one would fall to the bottom. Where the Mario brothers were located held a small frozen bond a few feet away from them as well as the roof to a cabin that was snow logged. Mario and Luigi approached the roof of the cabin seeing a sign posted out addresses to Luigi and Mario._

_End of Flashback_

However, this world had a few nuances that the other one didn't. Instead of the Mario Brothers being thrown on top of a steep mountain, they were right as sea level with room to roam around and easily get lost if they weren't careful. The ground that they did have to roam around would be blocked off by the surrounding of mountains everywhere. There were few ponds in the area that could be swimmable. However, due to the frozen climate in the world, swimming in these ponds for a few minutes could result in hypothermia or an even worse fate. In the center of the walkable land was a very tall fortress that was the main source of the Koopa troops.

"Well," Mario said as he dusted some snow of his shoulder while looking at the spire. "Guess we gotta climb that thing and grab those Power Stars."

Luigi also looked at the spine, worried of the concentration of Koopa troops present. "You think there's a way to sneak around them like we did with the sandstorm at the desert world?" All of a sudden, the snowfall was starting to pick up, indicating that a blizzard was on its way pretty soon. Luigi grew a small smile as began to formulate a plan for the Mario Brothers to sneak around the fortress. "We could use the snow that's coming down as cover as we look for a side entrance to the spire."

"I like the way you think Luigi." Mario replied as the Mario Brothers got into a crouching position as they walked cautiously through the grounds, using the natural formations of the land to give them cover. Since these formations were being built up by snow, they looked taller than if the blizzard went away, taking away extra visibility to the Koopa troops as they tried to pinpoint the location of the Mario Brothers. A couple of Koopa scouts, which were by the main gates of the fortress, were scouting around the area trying to detect the Mario Brother's location.

"You see them anywhere?" Asked one of the scouts to his partner who was carrying the binoculars as he was searching the area.

"Well keep searching." The scout said, concerned the blizzard was upon them right now, making their mission much more difficult. "I have a report that the same thing happened in the desert region where there was a big sandstorm in the region. The Koopa troops over there didn't find the Mario Brothers, and their base got torn to shreds in a matter of minutes just through sneaking up on us. So if we don't find them, I'm afraid the same damn thing is going to happen for us."

"No shi- the same thing will happen to us." The scout with the binoculars replied as his eyes were glued to the area. "But as of right now, this blizzard ain't making things easier." The other scout just irritably sighed as they both looked out in the area still, not knowing that the Mario Brothers were trying to go a different are to reach the fortress.

The Mario Brothers keep ducking out of sight of the Koopa troops of the fortress until they got up to a small path that was surrounded by a huge pond. "This could be the path to the side entrance that you were talking about Luigi." Mario said as they made their way to the path. The pathway was so narrow that one brother had to cross it at a time. The snow being fragile also didn't make things easier as they Mario Brothers believed that once it had been stepped on, it would dissipate into the pond below, making it unusable. "This was probably a trap set up by the Koopas. So what do you think we should do?"

"Let me go first." Luigi replied as he studied the pathway so that he could plan his movements. "I'm able to jump higher than you as well as be quicker, so I should be able to create enough space for you so that you could meet me up at the side entrance."

"I don't know Luigi." Mario said as he studied the pathway, afraid that his younger brother could make a mistake. "We really don't know how fragile the snow is. I'm not going to lose you the frosty waters below. Maybe we should go back to the main entrance and fight the Koopas head on. It's less risky than this…" Luigi got irritated, as Mario believed that his plan was going to fail and doom them both, thus not having faith in Luigi.

"LISTEN MARIO!" Luigi yelled, surprising Mario. Luckily, his shout was not in the ear range of the Koopa guarding the fortress. "Just trust me, like I trusted you when you got irritated about your cramp situation."

"But you had to eventually carry me out of that world, and you built up the cramps yourself. Look I want to take bold moves as much as the next guy. But this is potential suicide."

"That hasn't stopped you from rescuing Peach before." Luigi responded, silencing Mario dead in his tracks, making him completely motionless. Luigi then suddenly froze, regretting bringing up the Peach situation to Mario. "Look I'm sorry I said that. But please trust me; I know what I'm doing." Mario stood there for a second, and then snapped back to reality. Mario realize that Luigi did have a point though, there was nothing that was going to stop Mario from rescuing Peach or from Luigi rescuing Daisy. So to Mario, this risk was probably necessary for the both of them, even if the odds weren't in their favor.

"Fine," Mario reluctantly said as he stepped back allowing Luigi to gain some space. "Just get it over with." Mario closed his eyes as he couldn't bear the sight of Luigi failing if it had come to that. Luigi silent nodded as he got a good running start before attempting the feat. He then made his first move by jumping a great distance, which got him already halfway to the side entrance. He then ran up a few more feet before jumping again. The next jump got him to the side entrance successfully. "Hopefully I left room for Mario," Luigi thought as a chilling factor made him shudder nervously. "Otherwise I'm going to be an only child."

Mario then got himself his own running start before staring. Instead of trying to jump for range, like Luigi did, he instead followed the path Luigi left for him and jumping only when he needed to. Mario figured that not only would this be much easier for him, but it also left assurance that the Koopas couldn't be on their six when trying to accomplish what they needed to do on this world. "Killing two birds with one stone." Mario thought as he successfully made it to the other side. Mario then looked up to Luigi, who was smirking at him.

"See that wasn't so bad?" Luigi stuck his tongue out, making Mario give a "shut up" look.

"Just keep walking." Mario said as he stuck his own tongue back at him. The Mario Brothers snuck up the ridge from where the fortress was stationed; making it the easiest path by far as it completely avoided the Koopas eyesight, who were searching frantically for the presence of the Mario Brothers. Once they got to the top of the fortress, they found the Power Stars lying in a chest. "This was too easy." Mario said as they collected the Power Stars. "It wasn't 'fun' enough."

"Want to make it fun?" Luigi asked in a devilish grin. Mario nodded slowly, confused as to what he exactly meant by that. Luigi equipped his fire flower power up, to which Mario still had no idea what was coming out of Luigi's mind. "We're goanna melt this fortress." Luigi said in a serious yet playful tone, which caused Mario to devilishly smile as well.

"Drown the Koopas in the frozen water…excellent plan." Mario said as he equipped his fire flower power up. The Brothers then let the fortress on fire, melting the icy snow that was holding the fortress together. When it was melted enough, the Mario Brothers jumped down to the ground level again before finishing the job.

By the time the Koopas realized what was happening it was too late. "THE FORTRESS IS MELTING! THE FORTRESS IS MELITNG!" One of the Koopas called out before drowning to his death, as the others did as well. After a few minutes, it was almost like the spire never even existed as no traced remained instead of the increasing body of water that the huge pond had now, making it comparable to a small lake. No single Koopa remained either, making it the easiest world they had to conquer yet for the Mario Brothers.

"Can they be this easy all the time?" Luigi pondered as the Mario Brothers made their exit to Toadstool Castle.

"I wish." Mario replied as they left the world and got back to Toadstool castle. "Ok, on to the next world." Mario then motioned for Luigi to follow as they went to a painting of a weird looking spider. "Hmm." Mario thought as he remembered the special ability that this painting had that would be advantageous for the Mario Brothers. "Luigi, aim for the top of the painting ok."

"Why?" Luigi asked.

"Trust me; it's going to help us." Mario then jumped to the top of the painting, with Luigi following suit as they readied themselves for their next world to liberate from the Koopa Empire.


	28. Wet-Dry World

Mario and Luigi made it to their next world which was greeted was what appeared to be a sunken base. A blue sky was seen above that had an orange tint around it. They area that surrounded them in the world was covered by a large chain link fence. With the way that the best was setup, the brothers expected to have at least a good fight with the Koopa troops that occupied the base beforehand. However, as the Mario Brothers looked down below, most of the Koopa drowned with a surprised expression on their face. In the meantime, there was a chest that Mario spotted that contained the Power Stars. With nothing else to accomplish, the Mario Brothers headed out for the chest on the other side of the base, hoping to grab the Power Stars that they came for.

Luigi was confused with the way things turned out in this world, while Mario looked sure of himself. To Mario, he knew that this would happen exactly with the previous actions that they had taken previously.

_Flashback a few minutes ago_

"_Ok, on to the next world." Mario then motioned for Luigi to follow as they went to a painting of a weird looking spider. "Hmm." Mario thought as he remembered the special ability that this painting had that would be advantageous for the Mario Brothers. "Luigi, aim for the top of the painting ok."_

_ "Why?" Luigi asked._

_ "Trust me; it's going to help us." Mario then jumped to the top of the painting, with Luigi following suit as they readied themselves for their next world to liberate from the Koopa Empire._

_ End of Flashback_

"Mario, do you know what happened here?" Luigi asked curiously as they were close to the chest, while also staring down at the sunken base below them. Mario eyed the base too; happy that his little plan had worked to make things in this world easier than they would have if their previous actions were not taken.

"There was a reason I told you jump as high as you could Luigi." Mario replied in a serious tone as they made they got to the chest and collected the Power Stars. "The water levels here are indicative of where exactly you jump into the painting. When we jumped to the top of the painting, we raised the water level up to as high as we could. If we had jumped to the bottom of the level, we would have had a heavy fight on our hands. And trust me, we need as many breaks as we can get if we are going to defeat Bowser."

"I guess…" Luigi replied as they collected the Power Stars and left the world as it seemed they were here a little too short to his liking, expecting a big climatic battle to ensue like in every world. "Oh the irony…" Luigi thought as they exited the world and entered back into Toadstool Castle. "Well that was a little too anticlimactic for my taste." Mario just rolled his eyes at Luigi's remark as they made their way to the next painting.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get what you want with this next world we're going to enter." Mario replied as he looked a painting with a tall mountain with huge mushrooms coming out of the ground. Mario then jumped into the painting expecting Luigi to follow him behind.

"Well, I didn't say I didn't appreciate." Luigi mumbled to himself as he entered the world, as they prepared for their next task.

Meanwhile, back at the dark setting of the sky arena that Bowser setup, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy were stirring in yet another much needed sleep trying to put thoughts of being in this situation far away in their minds. However, as much as they had tried they have been getting nightmares throughout this whole ordeal, and they didn't seem to go away any time soon. In Peach's nightmare, he saw Mario being burned alive by Bowser, who was chuckling as his flesh being burnt to ashes with Peach in tears the whole time being locked in the cage. She would eventually be forced to annex her kingdom with Bowser and marry him in a forced marriage in order to prevent a hostile takeover with the Koopa Empire. Similar events would occur in Daisy's dreams. The differences being that Luigi was the one being burned alive and the Koopa Empire would annex Sarasaland in a forced marriage instead of the Mushroom Kingdom. However, their dreams ended the same as they both lived in unhappy life, dying in a cage somewhere as prisoners and only bring released if Bowser needed to make good public relations with the subjects of the three kingdoms they ruled.

"GAHHH!" Yelled out the princesses as they finally awoke from their horrible nightmares, cold sweats and heavy breathing being the results of waking up so suddenly.

"You had a nightmare Daisy?" Peach asked as she was able to calm down, relieved that the events she had imagined a few seconds ago was only the product of a nightmare.

"I sure did Peach." Daisy replied as she calmed down too. "Let me guess what the nightmare was about…Bowser won in the end."

"Yup." Peach replied. "But it was only a dream. Hopefully it remains that way."

"For both of our sakes, I hope you're right." Daisy then looked down at the ground taking something out of one of the pockets of her dress, which she intended to give to Luigi. A personal item that she couldn't make the details out because of the surrounding details but was very special to her growing up. She was going to give it to Luigi in a way to reveal her feelings to him. Tears came out of her eyes as she was about to speak up again. "Especially since I think there's something special between him and I."

"You're talking about Luigi right?" Peach asked.

"Yup." Daisy replied. Peach then tried to grab something out of the pockets of her dress, revealing the personal item she was going to give to Mario in order to reveal her feelings for him.

"I know how you feel Daisy. Because it's the way I feel about Mario too." Peach said as both princesses hugged their items to their bodies as Peach cleared her throat to speak up again. "But that's exactly why we can't give up hope right now. Because we want to see something happen that both of us can reap the benefits from: a relationship that we both care about." Daisy was surprised by that statement, she would be the one who usually gave the confident booster speeches and not Peach. However, she embraced Peach's newfound courage as she found herself feeling a bit more confident that the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom could finish off their dangerous quest. "Besides, when have they failed us anyway?"

"Never…" Daisy replied.

"Exactly! So that's why we have to give them a chance. Because they deserve it!" The princesses then put their personal items back into their pockets, waiting to give them to their heroes as soon as they got there to save them.


	29. Tall, Tall Mountain

Mario and Luigi landed on what appeared to be the base of a tall mountain. The weather was very pleasant, almost like it was a typical summer day at the Mushroom Kingdom. The mountain had the shape of a perfect cone with more leverage at the bottom of the mountain and a pointy tip at the top of it. The ridge was also spiraling so scaling to the top of it would require a lengthy walk or run to the top. There were a few gaps in the mountain, due to constant eroding of it, that if one were to fall, it would mean certain death for them. The mountain was also covered in very tall mushrooms that would probably be used by the Mario Brothers to travel very big gaps in the mountain's spiral. Both brothers stared at the top of it, thinking to themselves of how far they would have to go in order to reach it since they believed the tip contained the Power Stars.

"Wow that is a gigantic task for us." Mario thought as he continued staring at it, then looked toward Luigi. Mario knew Luigi was thinking the same thing as he saw an annoyed expression across his face as Luigi was getting tired of the different worlds that were coming across. Mario then cast a smirk upon Luigi to which Luigi turned his attention to, curious as to why Mario was deeming a smirk towards him.

"What's with the face?" Luigi asked, with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"So, is this the challenge you wanted Luigi." Mario replied as he pointed to the tip of the mountain, which both Brothers believed was the objective for this world. "Since you felt bad about being none in the past world." Mario then chuckled at the minor folly for his brother, which only got him more irritated in the mission, since Mario was rubbing it in.

"Shut up and let's just scale this go- damn mountain." Luigi said as he walked towards the pathway the Mario Brothers needed to go in order to start ascending the mountain. The Mario brothers then made their journey, with Mario on point, suspicious as there was no Koopas in sight. "Where do you think the Koopas are at?" Luigi asked, as he looked in both directions, determined to find at least a trickle of the Koopa Empire in this world, as the environment seemed disturbingly quiet for them.

"Who knows?" Mario replied as he also kept his eye out on any Koopa troops present as they came across a field of very tall mushrooms in the near distance. "But it could be like that other world we went to where there were absolutely no Koopa troops present."

"Yeah but instead we came across Boos, who are much more dangerous in my opinion."

"I guess you're right. But at least there were no Koopa troops to accompany them."

"Point taken." Luigi replied as they neared the field of mushrooms. The Mario Brothers were both astonished at the height of the mushrooms, as it seemed like there not growing from the mountain itself, but rather from the ground that was being hidden from them by the immense altitude level they were at now.

"How far dup do you think we are Luigi?" Mario asked as he backed away from the gap, a little paranoid that he might fall down into an abyssal gap until he splattered on the ground.

"I don't know." Luigi replied. Luigi then hacked up something from his throat, which Mario was grossed out by, and then spit it out into the gap that lay before them. Luigi noticed it still going until he couldn't see it anymore, surprised that it was still descending to the ground. "Guess I'm not founding that way." Luigi then cast a sheepish smile, to which Mario was not amused by.

"That was disgusting Luigi." Mario said as he made a gagging reaction with his hands and neck.

"You asked me how far down it was to fall, and I wanted to do a little science experiment."

"Well do me a favor Luigi. Never do science experiments again around me."

"No promises." Luigi replied with a little smirk of his own, causing Mario to roll his eyes as they kept moving down the pathway that seemed to avoid the gap where the field of mushrooms was located. As they were halfway across the gap, a group of Koopa archers sprang from the mushrooms.

"NOW!" Yelled one of the Koopas as they opened fire, causing Mario and Luigi to dodge them while still maintaining their footing on the narrow pathway they lay before them.

"It's an ambush!" Yelled Mario as he quickly put on his fire flower power up.

"You expected any different from these guys?" Luigi rhetorically asked as he did the same thing.

"No I didn't." Mario then eyed the stems from which the mushrooms, that the Koopas were on, had and Mario began to formulate a plan. "Shoot for the stems. They'll burn up quickly." Luigi silently nodded as they began to aim for the huge mushroom stems, causing the mushrooms to burn up quickly, leaving nothing left for the Koopa archers to stand on.

"AGHHHHHHH!" cried the Koopas as they fell into what seemed like a bottomless gap until they had landed on the eventual ground, splattering them to death. Mario and Luigi looked down, as they could still hear the screams of the falling Koopa troops, until they had stopped instantly which was followed by a sickening crack of their shells. They then paused a moment to get some rest before venturing forward.

"Hey," Luigi said trying to make a wisecrack. "At least we know how far the fall is now."

"Hey I guess you're right." Mario said as the brothers both chuckled at that dark joke. They then moved forward to the next obstacle that the mountain had in store for them. They got up to a point where they saw a huge waterfall with a log being the connecting point between a huge gap. Both brothers knew that this was the only way to get around the gap as there didn't seem to be an alternate pathway that they could have taken. "Well Luigi, let's make like beavers and beat this wood."

"You know that was a horrible joke right?" Luigi sarcastically asked, causing Mario to cast an unamused look.

"Just shut up and get on the damn log." Mario replied as they both made their way across the log bridge, unbeknownst to them that there was some Koopas at the top of the waterfall who were equipping fire arrows to their bows.

"Burn the wood boys!" One of the Koopa archers shouted as they shot their arrows at the log, causing the log to burn up quickly and disintegrating almost instantly. Within that time, Mario and Luigi could see the log crumbling beneath them. This made the Mario Brothers resort to drastic measures.

"JUMP!" Yelled Mario as both brothers leaped as far as they could as the log crumbled to pieces just as they barely grabbed the ledge of the other side of the gap as they tried to pull themselves up to carry on with their journey.

"HURRY UP AND FIRE AGAIN!" Yelled the same Koopa as the archers aimed for the bodies of the Mario Brothers knowing with a few arrows, they would have inclined to let go of the ledge just from the shock that the pain of being stuck with arrows in their bodies would bring. As the archers fired their next set of arrows, the Mario Brothers hoisted themselves onto the ground and rolled out of the way of the arrows. The Mario Brothers took another second to gather themselves to continue with the rest of the journey.

"You good Luigi?" Mario asked, giving him a thumbs up. Luigi returned the thumbs up with his own hand.

"I'm fine. Let's a Go!" Luigi replied as they continued further up the mountain eventually facing the archers at the top of the waterfall.

"GET EM BOYS!" Another one of the archers cried out as their fired another set of arrows that missed the Mario Brothers again as the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom returned their volley with a set of fireballs, which hit the Koopas and made them run out towards the ledge of the waterfall and falling towards the huge gap, plummeting towards their deaths.

With the last of the Koopa threat gone from the waterfall, the Mario Brothers continued scaling the last bits of the mountain. When they reached the top of the mountain, the Mario Brothers rested for what seemed like a half an hour, exhausted after scaling the very tall mountain that they were on.

"MAMA MIA!" Yelled both of the brothers as they collapsed at the walkable ground of the top of the mountain, finding the Power Stars in a nearby chest.

"At least we got the Power Stars from this place." Mario said in a cheerful tone as he grabbed the six Power Stars, satisfied with the prospect that this world was done. "We also a got a bit of exercise."

"Yeah, in which you needed." Luigi retorted as he pointed to Mario's torso.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" Mario shouted in anger, thinking that Luigi was calling him fat.

"You know what I mean Mario." Luigi replied as he looked down at the mountain towards the point where they had entered the world. "By the way, you do realize that we have to go back down in order to leave this place right?" Luigi then could sense a small expression of utter annoyance which Luigi was enjoying.

"DAMMIT!" Yelled Mario as he felt like throwing the Power Stars until realizing that they were the reason they came here in the first place. "Well," Mario then let out a big sigh as he prepared to speak again. "Let's just climb back down the mountain I guess." With that, the Mario Brothers started the trek back down the mountain, as least having the assurance that no Koopa threat would be meeting them as they scaled back down the mountain until they got back to the point from which they entered the world. They then left the world, ending back at Toadstool Castle again.

"So where do we go from here?" Luigi asked and then looked back at Mario, who had a bit of fright in his face as he remembered the next painting. His face got paler and paler as he kept thinking about it. "Mario…are you ok?" Luigi then waved a face in front of his brother as Mario promptly shoved it away.

"Just f-follow m-me." Mario replied as he started walking towards one of the rooms that the rotunda had to offer, which housed a hallway that diverged into two different paths. The Mario Brothers had walked up to the intersection, in which they housed two different sized paintings with the same image: two Goombas next to each other while looking at each other.

"So I'm guessing we go towards the smaller painting?" Luigi asked, hoping that was the right answer. Mario shook his head, which Luigi feared might be the case.

"No Luigi. Unfortunately…we have to go towards the 'other' painting." Mario then pointed towards the larger painting as both brothers made their way towards it. "I warn you Luigi. These creatures we will face are much tougher than your average Koopas."

"Even Bowser?" Luigi asked as he started to tremble with each word that Mario was saying.

"No. But it a step below Bowser." Mario replied as both brothers reluctantly jumped towards the larger painting, unsure if they were ready to take on their next challenge.


	30. Tiny-Huge Island

Mario and Luigi landed on what appeared to be a huge grassy square island in the middle of a vast ocean that covered the rest of the world. The ocean appeared barren and devoid of life, as if something had already gotten to the underwater creatures. The conditions outside were the same as if they were in spring at the Mushroom Kingdom as it wasn't hot enough to produce summer temperatures yet warm enough for it to not feel like winter. It was also particularly sunny out. The island was also devoid of Koopa troops or any particular threat, yet as the island seemed empty and devoid of life as well as the ocean did. However, there were no signs of the Power Stars either, which troubled both of the Mario Brothers.

"So this is the island you were afraid of huh Mario?" Luigi asked with a cocky grin as to imply that Mario was afraid of nothing. He took a good look around the island, seeing nothing that would threaten him or Mario as he proceeded to emit a small chuckle. "Come on Bro. There's nothing here to be afraid of. Just look at the open space around here. If we weren't out hunting these Power Stars, then I would possibly take a vacation here. Speaking of which, where the hel- are they?" Luigi scratched his head in confusion trying desperately to find them on the island, which he could see the rest of particularly easy as there were no trees or shrubbery to obscure his vision.

"That's what you think Luigi." Mario replied still having the same fear in his eyes, which caused Luigi to roll his eyes around, still not convinced that there was any danger around them. "You think there's nothing there, but soon enough you'll see the truth of this place." Mario then equipped his fire flower power up, despite there not being the presence of a single enemy. Not even the creatures that were supposed to live in this world were present, which made Mario seem all the more crazy about this place in Luigi's eyes.

"Bro I think you had one too many bumps in the ole noggin." Luigi replied as he lightly hit his head with fist to echo the same sentiment he was telling Mario.

"Fine." Mario replied, still in his fire flower suit. "Wait till they come then, and then you'll believe me when the real threat exists. We've already alerted them to our presence, just by coming to this island."

"Geez I'm kind of worried about Mario." Luigi thought as he sat by the edge of the grassy island. He then took off his shoes to allow the feet to cool off from all of their adventures with the water. 'I would leave by now. But I'll give him a few minutes to try to see the error of his ways. Besides," Luigi chuckled to himself. "The water does feel good."

After a few minutes, nothing had still showed up, which didn't daunt Mario as he was still alert and in his fighting stance, trying to figure out where the unseen enemies are and why they have not attacked them yet. Luigi, though, was getting fed up with the nonexistent enemies in his mind, and decided to try to leave this world. However, he had tried to convince Mario the same exact thing, which would be difficult to do because of his stubborn nature.

"Look Mario." Luigi sternly called out, trying to get Mario's attention. "We've been here for a good amount of time right now. I haven't seen hide nor tail of your creatures, so I think it's best if we-"Luigi was suddenly interrupted by a small tremor coming from the island, which startled Luigi for a second. "What the heck was that?" Luigi thought as he seemed startled by the sudden pulsation from the ground.

"See," Mario said as he braced himself for the enemies that were coming in their direction. "It old you to come sooner or later, now hurry up and put your fire flower suit on before they approach us." However Luigi still didn't believe Mario that the enemies were coming, thinking it was a coincidence that a small subtle movement was coming from the ground.

"Mario, it's a small earthquake. Quite common on our planet remember?" Luigi replied thinking about the earthquakes they used to hear about that usually occurred in California.

"But I-"Mario said before being cut off by Luigi.

"NO!" Luigi yelled, startling Mario that Luigi had the nerve to yell at him as well as thinking that he was crazy and that he was just imagining things. "Now I've had enough with this little charade. Now can we please just go back through the-" Luigi was suddenly interrupted when six huge creatures came sprouting out from the ground. They revealed themselves to be the piranha plants that the Mario Brothers saw earlier in their adventure.

_Flashback 40 Hours Ago_

_They were easily avoided by the Mario Brothers as they then came across a strange creature that was blocking their way from progressing. It looked to be a cross between a piranha and a plant that Luigi would sometimes grow in the garden of the Mario Brother's home._

_ "What the heck is that thing?" Luigi questioned as he tried to approach the creature very carefully as it seemed to be sleeping, making the brothers' presence unnoticed._

_ "I don't know a Piranha plant…" replied Mario also confused as to what exactly this creature was actually called. As Luigi approached it, the piranha plant woke up and started to reach for Luigi's hand trying to bite it, causing Luigi to flinch and retreat back to Mario's position._

_ "I don't care what that thing is," cried Luigi who started to get a little tense from almost losing his hand to that creature. "Let's burn that thing." Mario and Luigi activated their firepower up and burned up the Piranha plant,_

_ End of Flashback_

"Portal." Luigi finally speaking as the Piranha Plants roared in anger, furious that they were trespassers in their territory. They then began to attack the Mario Brothers, with Luigi and Mario suddenly dodging them. The two brothers met at the middle of the grassy island, where the six huge piranha plants surrounded them, ready to attack them in an instant.

"Told you so." Mario said in a fearful tone not even attempting to stick out his tongue as he was too concentrated on fighting the huge enemies that loomed just a few feet away.

"But…I," Luigi said as he quickly got his fire flower power up ready, thinking how to deal with these creatures when he remembered how to kill them from the flashback. "BURN EM ALIVE!" Luigi yelled as Mario and Luigi threw the fireballs at the Piranha plants as quickly as they could. The plants easily burned alive, howling in screeches of pain which were too much for the Mario Brothers to handle as their covered in ears, the howling taking an effect on their minds. The plants were then left in a burnt husky shell of themselves, dead as the flames spread, covering the entire island with flames, which would take the brothers soon if they didn't leave the island quickly. "What are we going to do Mario?" Luigi getting frightful of the ever approaching horde of flames surrounding them. "We don't even have the Power Stars we need yet?"

"Look…" Mario replied as he pointed over to the plant corpses, which revealed a Power Star in each of the six plants that lay before them. They quickly grabbed the Power Stars as they tried to make their way to the exit. "Well," Mario thought as he looked back at the huge plant corpses again, shriveling more and more into ash. "At least we never have to come back to this wretched place again." The Mario Brothers then quickly exited the world before the island was fully covered in flames, waiting for rain to take over eventually and extinguish the flames, as well as replant the grass that was once destroyed.

The Mario Brothers ended back up in Toadstool, panting from their recent adventure, unsure of what to think of that experience. "I don't get it." Luigi thought as he looked back to the panting, the image of the world haunting his mind. "How could those piranha plants have grown to a huge size? I remember when we killed that first one, it was not taller than you Mario and YOU are exceptionally short." Mario gave him an angry look, which made Luigi attempt to scramble for an apology. "Hehe Sorry Mario." Luigi then cast a sheepish smile, which Mario just ignored.

"It's that painting Luigi," Mario replied as he refused to look back at it. "It's just one of the 'properties' it has. It's the world that is created. Just like how we were able to control the water level in that one painting. It's part of its physique, it's makeup." Luigi then looked down, chastising himself for not believing in his brother. Mario had always trusted Luigi with whatever stories and reports they came up with in life, whether he was right or nor because of the brotherly trust he shared. Luigi did the same thing, and instead ridiculed him for his behavior which was the ultimate sin of their brotherhood as well as their friendship.

"Mario…" Luigi said with tears in his eyes." I'm sorry that I didn't believe you when you. Will you forgive me?" Mario, who would always love his brother no matter what, ran up to him and gave him a bro hug which was a true testament of their friendship. "Absolutely. You're a great teammate ever since we first arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom. We just gotta have some 'fun' moments here and there." Mario then gave a nudge on the elbow to Luigi, to which Luigi simply smiled. "Anyways, you ready to kick Bowser's as-?" Luigi nodded as a heroic confidence set around them, as he believed himself read to confront their true adversary.

"LET'S A GO!" Luigi yelled as both Mario Brothers made their way to the next Big Star Door. The Big Star door, detecting their presence realized that they had enough stars to pass through. As the star door slowly moved itself to become open, Luigi and Mario got into their fighting stances, believing this to be the confrontation with Bowser.

"Time to get my Daisy." Luigi thought.

"Time to get my Peach." Mario thought. The Big Red Star Door opened itself, revealing the area for the Mario Brothers.

"OH MY GOD!" Yelled the Mario Brothers in astonishment.


	31. Bowser's Old Prison

The Big Red Star Door revealed another room for them to explore. However, it was this room that Bowser held the princesses captive some time ago.

_Flashback 2 days ago_

_Meanwhile, at the upper levels of Toadstool Castle, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy finally regained consciousness as they woke up to a room that was unfamiliar to Daisy, but was familiar to Peach. The walls of this room had a starry night design, along with a clock and an alcove to the right, which was the location of another world that the stars were kept in. Behind the princesses was another red star door that would take them to the highest interior point of the castle. Bowser saw them wake up and walked over towards the princesses._

_End of flashback_

However, the room felt abandoned. There was a mess of papers scattered all over the floor. Most of it was Bowser's research on the potential of the power Bowser could have once he had obtained all of the Power Stars. The chairs Bowser used to sit and conduct his research were broken, probably thrown to the ground with all the rage induced fits that Bowser was prone to whenever he couldn't find the information he needed to get the upper hand on the Mario Brothers. Another Big Red Star Door was across from where the Mario Brothers were standing, infuriating them with the fact they had more worlds to do before they could truly end this.

"IT'S ANOTHER DAMN HUB ROOM!" Yelled the Mario Brothers in anger as they realized their plight. They would have to access the two remaining worlds that were left in this room before they could have their final confrontation with Bowser.

"Why can't they just leave us alone with this Power Star crap?" Luigi asked with a hint of anger in his voice as he tried to calm himself down. Mario, who was more calm than Luigi but still angry too, headed over to the area where the mess of papers was, and tried to look at anything that can help them understand what exactly Bowser wanted.

"I don't know Luigi," Mario replied as he picked up the first paper up from the ground. "But maybe we can find it through this mess of papers." Mario read the paper, which was part of the creation of the Power Stars for the Mushroom Kingdom defense. "Hmm, this details the existence of the Power Stars." Mario thought as he read the paper before putting in a separate pile, which he classified as already read. "But from what it told me, I shouldn't have been collecting these papers in the first place. So what's Bowser's end game here?" Mario picked up another paper while looking back at Luigi, who was visibly frustrated with the existence of this room. "Hey Luigi, instead of looking angry could you help me figure out exactly what's going on here?" Luigi then stirred up and rushed over to the mess of papers. "Whatever you pick up, read it. When you're finished, place it over at that pile I just started." Mario pointed over to the pile with the lonely paper.

Luigi picked up one paper that talked a little about the properties of the Power Stars. "Nope nothing useful here." Luigi thought placing that paper away on the pile. The next paper he picked up detailed the creation of the Mushroom Kingdom. "Nope, but it could be interesting later." Luigi placed that paper away. Luigi picked up another paper, which detailed the next two worlds that they were going to go to in the near future, since the information about these worlds didn't correspond with the worlds they have traveled to already. "Hmm, better save this information for later." Luigi put the piece of paper in his pocket, intending to use it once they were finished investigating.

Mario picked up another two papers, which were just information about the worlds they had already visited. "Hmm could have been useful a long time ago." Mario muttered as he placed these papers in the pile that was starting to grow as the Mario Brothers collected more and more scattered papers. Mario then picked up another paper that had an interesting headline about it, and started reading it with intense curiosity. Luigi noticed and immediately got curious as to know what Mario was so intensely focused upon.

"Hey Mario," Luigi called out, snapping Mario out of his intense focus. "What you got there?"

"I'll read it to you Luigi," Mario replied as he cleared his throat to begin speaking. "But listen carefully. It's an old report from one of the Mushroom guards that were on duty." Mario cleared his throat again as he began reading the report loudly.

"Captain Johnathan Price Report Log#2214"

"It's come to my attention that we aren't alone. There' something to be said when I'm the first to mention this. Especially becoming a big skeptic of other life out there. That is until the family of creatures came. Sweet family that was. The tall male looking creature was kind, noble, had petty clothing almost as if he was a beggar from our kingdom. The thing was, however, he wasn't. He came out of this weird green warp pipe looking thing, along with a woman looking creature who was just a little shorter than him with the same personality and attire. The man had blue eyes, blonde hair. The woman same description as well. From what I can tell, they were both Caucasian. Then something came to my attention. There was a tiny creature that was being held by the woman. She was small so I couldn't get a good sense of what she looked like, not to mention that she was probably in the infantile stages. But I knew just from looking at her that she hoisted the same character traits as her family. It's funny after that short time, these creatures happened to become our rulers. Course we Toads didn't know exactly that they who call themselves humans could be so friendly, so charismatic, but it just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by his cover as they say. Hail the Mushroom Kingdom and our new benevolent rulers."

"Wait," Luigi said as he scratched his head in confusion. "If this report is talking about us, then it's inaccurate. I certainly remembered when we landed down here. We were most certainly not with a woman or child, plus I don't remember anything about us being blonde." Luigi took off his cap in a little panic attack to make sure his hair was still black. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that this was the case.

"You idiot…" Mario said; face palming himself at Luigi's stupidity. "This isn't about us. It's about PEACH!" Mario yelled, which caught Luigi off guard.

"P-Peach…" Luigi replied, shocked at that statement. "But I've always thought that she always was born into the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"No of course not," Mario replied starting to put the pieces of the little mystery puzzle together. "Don't you see Luigi? She's a human. Aren't we humans Luigi?" Luigi silently nodded at that question, not getting Mario's point across. "Didn't we exist on Planet Earth?"

"Yes, most specifically from Brooklyn, New York." Luigi replied, trying to sound smart about their history.

"Ok…but think about it. How did we get ourselves into the Mushroom Kingdom, albeit it this world?" Mario asked, as now the fuse was sparking in Luigi's mind.

"From…the…warp pipe." Luigi said, finally getting the point across. "THAT MEANS PEACH CAME FROM EARTH! AND THAT SHE HAD A MOM AND POP!" Mario silently nodded and started clapping his hands for Luigi finally figuring out the mystery. "But if that's the case Mario, where is Mama and Papa Toadstool or more politely the King and Queen of the Mushroom Kingdom?" Luigi asked, causing Mario to just shrug his shoulders.

"I don't know Luigi," Mario said as he clung to the paper tightly. "But I want to hold on to this little paper. I just want to remember where she came from and that she's not so different from you and me." Luigi silently nodded as he was about to pick up another paper when he dropped the paper in shock. Ironically, it was the paper that was the most important to them which contained the secrets of the Power Star.

_Flashback 40 hours ago_

_Meanwhile, Bowser was still researching the secrets of the Power Stars when he came across something important in his research. The very thing that he was reading in his mind over and over again allowed his grin to become more and more sinister. "The most powerful configuration of the Power Stars is a magnificent object called the Grand Star. The Grand Star is the result of all of the castle's Power Stars being combined together in order to produce one gigantic star. The wielder of this powerful item would have the ability to become indestructible permanently until the Grand Star was removed from the wielder." The more he had fixated on the statement, the more he thought about that the Mario Brothers, who were going to hand, deliver the Power Stars right to him._

_ End of Flashback_

"M-Mario." Luigi said, almost breaking down in tears when he looked up. Mario saw the look in Luigi eyes, which he knew meant that he had bad news. He sighed, hoping the news wasn't bad at all.

"What is it Luigi?" Mario asked in a concerned tone. Luigi didn't respond with his voice, he just pointed in the direction across from them. He pointed to the cages that were right in front of them, the cages that held the princesses before they were moved to the sky arena. Mario didn't speak for a few minutes, frozen by the fear that there was uncertainty as to where the princesses where now or what kind of condition they were in. "L-Luigi we have to check i-it out." The Mario Brothers slowly made it to the cages.

The cages weren't in bad condition and there wasn't anything bad to report out of them. However, they found traces of blood spurted on the cage bars as well as the ground in which the cage encompassed.

"He hurt…my Peach" Mario thought as tears started streaming down his face before the rage kicked in.

"He hurt…my Daisy" Luigi thought as the same expressions started to flood him.

"THAT'S IT! I'LL KILL HIM!" Yelled both Mario Brothers as they started to look at each other. They then silently nodded as they went off to the next world they had to tackle. "WE'LL KILL HIM!" The Mario Brothers ran up to what seemed like a clock tower with the minutes hand going in an abnormal pace, but slow enough for the Mario Brothers to see the hand rotating the clock.

"Well," Mario said as he ready himself for the jump. "Ready to head into this world."

"Not yet Mario," Luigi replied as he took out the piece of paper he was looking at earlier. "I have something to read to you out loud." Luigi cleared his throat as he began to speak again.

"The world that lies within the Clock Tower has very special properties that you must adhere to. You see the minute hand that lies before you." Luigi then pointed to the minute hand that they saw earlier. "It controls the speed at which you go through in the world. This is the point that YOU MUST READ AND KNOW FOR YOUR SAFETY! If you enter the clock when the hand is pointed at 12, the world freezes. If you enter the clock when the hand is pointed at 3, the world moves slowly. If you enter the clock when the hand is pointed at 6, the world moves at random speeds and at random directions. If you enter the world when the hand is pointed at 9, the world moves quickly." Luigi then put the paper back in his pocket as he prepared to give another quick statement before jumping into the world. "We should probably enter when the hand is at 3." Mario silently nodded as they waited for the minute hand to land at 3.

"NOW!" Yelled both Mario Brothers as they jumped into the portal when the hand got to 3, ready for whatever was coming out to get them.


	32. Tick Tock Clock

Mario and Luigi entered what appeared to be the inside of a huge clock tower. The inside of the world appeared to be metallic looking. They were a lot of platforms that seemed to be acting like the gears of the clock tower. The surrounding walls were also metallic looking. There was no sky, because of the fact that they were in the inside of a huge clock tower so the sky was covered by the outside covering of the top of it. The platforms did move, as they were expected to in order to keep the clock tower moving, but they did so it a slow pace, which the Mario Brothers could have easily picked up on.

"See that's why I told us to get into the portal when the minute hand was exactly on three." Luigi said as he pointed to the slow moving platforms. Mario acknowledged Luigi's comment with a silent nod as he looked back up at the slow moving platforms. They seemed to be moving in a clockwise motion. They would make a sudden slight movement, wait for ten seconds, and then make another sudden movement and the process would repeat again and again.

"Well you're right about that Luigi," Mario replied, his eyes still concentrated on the moving platforms. "Did that piece of paper of yours tell us where the Power Stars were? It seems there are a hundred different pathways that we could move about if we wanted to." Luigi went into a thinker's pose before pulling out that piece of paper he had that gave them the information about the two worlds inside the room they were just in before getting inside the clock tower. He read the paper, finding out the location of the Power Stars from there.

"According to the paper," Luigi said as he put the piece of paper back in his pocket, saving it for future use. "The stars are located at the top of the clock tower. We just have to use those platforms over there and navigate from there." Mario gave his brother a pat on the back as they prepared themselves for their next challenge. The Mario Brothers first analyzed how exactly the platforms were going to be moving. Once they had studied the movements for a few minutes, they began their first jump, navigating the first set of platforms easily. "Hey Mario. They should call us the Jumpman Brothers."

"Enough with the jokes Luigi," Mario said, trying to ignore that feeling of ushering a chuckle for the attempted joke by Luigi. "We have to get those stars quickly. Who knows what Bowser is doing to our fair princesses." Luigi silently nodded, feeling a little irritated that Mario couldn't at least crack a fake laugh at his joke as they continued on. The Mario Brothers were surprised that there was no presence of the Koopa troops there, which got them to wonder why that was exactly the case.

"It's weird that it's one of the final levels, and we haven't seen a Koopa troop yet." Mario said while continuing to navigate the platforms, as the Mario Brothers were halfway there to the Power Stars. "You got any ideas as to why exactly that is Luigi?"

"Well it could be due to the fact that the Koopa are on high alert, and are probably planning a trap for us as we speak when we actually cross that other Red Star Door." Luigi replied as he was still keeping up with Mario's pace, approaching the last set of navigable platforms that were the obstacles to the chest containing the Power Stars. "But in my opinion, the Koopa troops did not know about the minute hand properties of this world, and thus probably fell down to the bottom." Luigi then pointed downward to the abyssal gap that eventually led to the bottom of the clock tower, where they were dozens of Koopa corpses laying, unaware of how to exactly navigate the platforms that Mario and Luigi were successfully able to do.

They eventually got up to the chest containing the six power stars. The Mario Brothers cracked it open, and collected the six remaining Power Stars in their wake, ready to exit this world and enter the last one. "Fourteen down, one to go!" Mario exclaimed happily as he gave Luigi a high five.

"Yeah, and I'm glad that this one had no opposition. Not even a Koopa troop in sight for us or an enemy of this world to kill."

"Just goes to show that we are the last remnants of this little charade that Bowser has made us go down with it." The Mario Brothers climbed back down to the entry point of the world, using the platforms they had just used to go up the clock tower to go down the clock tower. After a half an hour, the Mario Brothers finally made it to the entry point and exited the world landing back in Toadstool Castle, and eager to get the final world over with. "So where is this final world Luigi?" Mario questioned as he looked around for an easy portal to point out, which he unfortunately did not find.

"It's up there." Luigi replied as he pointed to a small alcove that was a few feet above them, but was accessible with a well-placed jump. The Mario Brothers easily got up to the alcove as they looked down at the obvious pit that represented the next world. Mario had a suspicious look on his face, no doubt believing that there was the possibility that the Koopa troops were down there, waiting to plant an ambush as soon as they stepped down.

"Well let's get to it Luigi." Mario replied, instantly equipping his fire flower power up, which did not surprise Luigi one bit as he did the same thing.

"Yeah let's a go. Time to collect the last remaining Power Stars." The Mario Brothers jumped down the pit, anticipating an ambush as soon as they landed.

Meanwhile, at the fire arena where the Mario Brothers had finally found their new ally who was believed to have been dead due to a noble sacrifice, The Ranger stood up from the alcove with a pulsating throb coming from his head. "Ugh…," The Ranger thought as he got up slowly, feeling a bit groggy. "Where am I? What exactly happened?" Then, in an instant, all the memories that came before he passed out from exhaustion flooded back to him, realizing what he was ready to do now. "Oh yeah, now I remember. Time to kick some Koopa Empire tail." The ranger used a grappling arrow to pull him back to the arena floor, with his bow pulling him up to it. He then went down a warp pipe, anticipating heavy resistance when he got back to the basement of Toadstool Castle.


	33. Rainbow Ride

The final world that the Mario Brothers would have to encounter was probably the most strange to them. The first sign that this was the strangest world was the fact that the whole world was set up in the clouds in a sky like setting. Thus, it would be a clear sign that if the Mario Brothers fell off in the sky world, it would probably mean certain death for them. The next strange thing about it was the fact that the sky world had islands serving as the territory for which its inhabitants can walk upon as there was no clear territory that was large enough to be the hub of some main base or city. The last thing that was so strange about was its awkwardly cheery atmosphere to it. The Mario Brothers would expect the final world to be some demonstrative creation, as it would no doubt be the toughest world to manage having been so deep in the castle where the final Power Stars were to be held. Instead, the world was brightly lit, and it had a colorful atmosphere that would no doubt lead the brothers to conclude that this world could have been a former paradise. That is until the Koopa Empire took over.

When they were about to make their landing to the new world, a group of Koopa Troops waited at the entrance for them. They were determined to halt their journey here, which for the Mario Brothers was close to ending. They had set up around a circular platform, and the intention for them was to draw fire on the Mario brothers in the middle of the circular platform as soon as they landed.

"Alright boys, everyone here know the plan?" Asked one of the Koopa troops. Everyone in the group silently nodded their hands, confirming that they were ready to strike when needed to.

"Yeah," one of the other Koopa troops replied, drawing his sword out. "It's time to put a stop to this once and for all. This is the final world for crying out loud."

"Exactly, this is why they cannot be allowed to gain these Power Stars that we are supposed to guard. If they do, it could very well end our plans to exact revenge upon those meddling plumbers."

"Wait a minute," another Koopa troop cried out, resulting in a cast of glares from the other troops. "Doesn't Bowser want the Koopa Troops to collect the Power Stars in order to be able to make that Grand Star that causes the power of-"The Koopa troop was cut off by an interruption from one of the leader of the small ambush brigade, infuriated from what he was hearing.

"LISTEN HERE!" The Koopa Troop yelled, startling the other members. "WE ARE GOING TO END THIS NOW! I DON'T CARE WHAT IT TAKES! SOMETHING HAS TO BE SAID FOR THE MURDEROUS MARIO MONSTERS THAT THEY ARE!" The Koopa troop then paused to catch his breath from all the yelling, as the Mario Brothers descended to the entry point. "Get ready…" The leader called out as everyone in the group got into their positions for the upcoming ambush.

The Mario Brothers, anticipating this sudden ambush before were freefalling headfirst with the intention of using their fists to break the fall. When they did that, a sudden burst of fire energy came trembling all around the area of the platform, causing the stunned Koopa troops to burn up and fall off the edge of the platform, falling into their eventual deaths.

"Well looks like you were right about something coming our way." Luigi replied as he turned off his fire flower power up and examined the strange layout of the final world.

"I just had a feeling those no good Koopas had one more trick up their sleeve before our encounter with Bowser." Mario replied as he also took a look on the layout. "This is pretty weird though."

"What is?" Asked Luigi as he scratched his head in confusion as to what Mario was implying.

"THIS WHOLE WORLD! I mean look at it, would YOU expect this is to be the final world we encounter? It just seems too easy to us."

"Maybe it's a hero's courtesy?" Luigi asked casting a sheepish smile to his theory as to the simplicity of this world.

"I highly doubt it. But I guess if we clear this world quickly we don't have to think about it for too long. So what exactly do we have to do in this world?" Mario asked, knowing Luigi had all the answers to this world with the piece of paper in his pocket. After the question was sked, Luigi pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and began to read it.

"Hmm…According to the paper," Luigi replied as he put the piece of paper back in his pocket, saving it in case they got lost. "We have to take a ride via a magic carpet of some kind over a rainbow road." Mario just looked at Luigi like he had two heads instead of one.

"What kind of drug induced logic is that?" Mario asked, dumbfounded by what Luigi had just said.

"Hey I don't make the rules of this so called logic this world is running on. Nor do I make the hidden location of the chest we are supposed to be finding in order to get those stars. I just have this BLOODY piece of paper in my hands!"

"Alright, alright," Mario replied tired of arguing with Luigi. "So where is this supposed magical carpet anyway?" Luigi looked over the world a bit from the circular platform until he saw something interesting in the distance.

"It's right over there." Luigi replied, pointing to the interesting object out in the distance.

"It better be. I'm getting sick of just looking at this world." Mario was getting sick by the happy tone this world was setting, which was anti climatic to how he felt the layout of a final world should be. Luigi didn't mind just as it didn't take the Mario Brothers that long to find the Power Stars. The Mario Brothers ran up to the interesting thing in the distance, jumping a few feet between the three platforms that served as obstacles to their target objective.

The Mario Brothers finally made it to the interesting thing they saw earlier, which it turned out to be the magic carpet. The carpet was beige colored, with some interesting designs in it. There was a brown borderline, with a red line following the borderline. There were brown triangles surrounding the two wider sides of the middle rectangle of the carpet as well as two small orange triangles surrounding the lengthier sides of the middle rectangle. The Carpet also seemed to have a rainbow road attached to the bottom of the carpet, which allowed it to move somewhat as the road was powering the carpet.

"So ready to get on?" Luigi asked as he stepped forward to the carpet.

"I guess so." Mario said as both brothers proceeded to go on to the magic carpet. They had to wait for a few seconds before the magic carpet suddenly started moving, taking them to their destined location. On the way, they spotted a few platforms that wouldn't lead them anywhere if they stayed on the platforms allowing their magic carpet to continue the journey without them. However, there were points that they did have to step off the carpet onto these platforms because of several fire traps the Koopa Empire designed to ward them off their track. After a few minutes of overcoming these obstacles, the Mario Brothers finally made it to end of the magic carpet and proceeded to enter what appeared to be a flying pirate ship.

"Seriously, they have flying pirate ships in this world?" Mario asked, infuriated with the logic that this final world seemed to have.

"I don't know Mario." Luigi said as both Brothers got into the flying pirate ship. The flying pirate ship looked like any normal pirate ship with a deck, a few floors to navigate through. Quarters for a good number of people to live on the ship. There was even a mess hall. The thing that was different, however, was the fact that the pirate ship had paddles and flying wings attached to each side of the ship, which was making it able to fly in this sky world. When they got onto the ship, they expected a Koopa ambush at any point, but there wasn't one as it looked like someone beat them to it. There were arrows everywhere, with dead Koopas sprawling all over the place.

"Could The Ranger have done this?" Mario questioned, seeing as both Mario Brothers knew he was the only one that still possessed a bow and arrows and was now an ally to both of them.

"Impossible…" Luigi replied, with an eerily tone in his voice. "If that were the case, then The Ranger would have followed us into the Big Red Star Door when we first approached this room, but he made that sacrifice back in the lava arena to save and allow us to continue on our mission."

"But if that's the case Luigi," Mario replied, frozen with fear that someone was watching the two of them. "Then who was already over here?"

Luigi swallowed hard as he didn't know the answer to that question. "I have no idea…"

"Then let's just get the Power Stars and get out of here, or else we'll be cut down by those same arrows." Mario said as Luigi silently nodded in agreement as they went to go find the chest. They went over to where the captain's quarters would be located, and found in sitting on a bigger treasure chest. They then collected the six Power Stars and proceeded to go back to the entry point though another magic carpet that took them all the way back. The Mario Brothers then exited the portal, ending up back in Toadstool Castle.

Meanwhile at the final world, there was a hooded figure that was at a platform nearby the flying ship that was tracking down the Mario Brothers' every move. "So these are the 'heroes' of the Mushroom Kingdom?" The figure silently thought as he laughed about. "I've taken down criminals much tougher than these two goons seem to be? I guess it doesn't matter know, I've got what I came for." The figure than put what seemed to be a blueprint in his pocket, revealing the bow and arrow that he had. "Soon, the plans will be complete and that wretched dinosaur will finally listen." The figure then departed through a secret portal, taking him to an unknown location.

Back at Toadstool Castle, the Mario Brothers were ready. They had gotten all the Power Stars that they needed and were ready to face their dreaded nemesis, Bowser. They lined up at the final Big Red Star door. The Big Red Star door opened slowly, building up the tension that the climactic battle will soon have.

"This is it." Mario thought as he clenched his fists in a fighter's stance preparing for the showdown with Bowser. "Soon I'll rescue you from that brute my sweet Peach."

"It's time to end this." Luigi thought also clenching his fists. "I'm a goanna rescue from that dinosaur my beloved Daisy."

"LET'S A GO!" Yelled both Mario Brothers as they entered the room that the Big Red Star Door contained, which contained a few flight of stairs followed by an obvious pit that seemed to come up from the ground. The Mario Brothers ran up the stairs, just out of ear sight from a familiar voice calling up to them.

"MARIO BROTHERS WAIT!" The voice yelled, but it was too late as whoever spoke knew what Bowser was going to do to them if they made it this far. The Mario Brothers got to the pit, and ended up jumping down inside it, ready to face off with Bowser.


	34. Atonement

_Thirty Minutes Earlier…_

The Ranger got back to the basement of Toadstool Castle, with his falchion drawn out, anticipating a surprise attack from the Koopa Troops, not wanting him to assist the Mario Brothers in their plot to defeat Bowser. Meanwhile, The Ranger has been chastising himself for allowing his mind to be so easily fooled by Bowser earlier. "How could I not see through the deceit…?" The Ranger thought as he proceeded to the hallway where the Mario Brothers encountered the Boo ghosts earlier. From there, he encountered several Koopa troops blocking his entry way into the main hall, ready to challenge him to a fight.

"Well…well…well," one of the Koopa troops called drawing his sword out. "What do we have here? Looks like ye old ex-apprentice has come back from the dead." The other Koopas chimed in chuckles as The Ranger got into a fighting stance. The other Koopas stopped chuckling when the Koopa troop who was speaking previously cleared his throat. "Anyways, there's no way you're getting to the Mario Brothers. You can't prevent what is going to come to them this time. The endgame is approaching."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." The Ranger called out as he charged with his falchion in hand to fight the Koopa troops blocking his way. The fight lasted about three minutes until he was able to defeat them all. The Ranger was very superb in his combat skills, having known of the Koopa's weakness which was to strike the shells and break them which he was able to learn while he was training with the Koopas before the whole mess got started in the first place. "See what happens when you give your enemy the tools to break you down!" The Ranger called out to nobody as the Koopa troops were laying in the hallway dead. "Too bad it took so long though. I haven't got much time to warn the Mario Brothers." The Ranger thought as he proceeded up the stairs nearby the hallway to the main hall of Toadstool Castle.

However, already waiting for The Ranger was a group of Koopa troops that were ready to fire arrows at him when he stepped out of the door into the main hall. "Everyone get your bows out. I hear him coming." One of the Koopa archers declared as he heard the creaking of the door, which was The Ranger trying to get it open. "FIRE!" The Koopa archers shot at the door, anticipating The Ranger to get hit with at least one of them. However, The Ranger dodged them in time as he took out an explosive arrow out of his selection of arrow types.

"Take this you bastards." The Ranger murmured to himself as he shot the explosive arrow at the ceiling from where the Koopa were standing. The Koopa troops just laughed at The ranger from behind the door.

"And here we thought you were a good shot ex-apprentice." One of the other Koopa archers said as they kept chuckling as they reloaded for another shot at him. Unbeknownst to them, however, The Ranger pushed down a button on his bow and an explosion above them commenced. Pieces of the debris from the ceiling started raining down at them. "AHHHH!" the Koopa archers screamed as the debris crushed them to death, allowing the small threat to be permanently ceased, allowing The Ranger passage to the upper levels of Toadstool Castle.

"Dammit. More time wasted with these goons." The Ranger thought as he quickly rushed up the stairs to the door that led to the rotunda. He quickly turned the door open, when something surprised the ranger: a Koopa swordsman jumped right at The Ranger from right behind the door and knocked him back a few feet, tumbling down the stairs until he hit the hard stone floor of the main hall with his feet. The Ranger quickly got angry as he sprang back up to his feet, looking at the cocky grin of the Koopa swordsmen, who carried with him double swords, and who looked a bit bigger than the Koopa troops he dealt with previously. "Must be one of the better ones they got." The Ranger then shot an arrow as the swordsmen, who easily slashed it one of his swords. The Ranger grinned at that move as he drew his falchion. "And smart too…This is going to be fun." The Ranger then put his fingers up, taunting the Koopa swordsmen to attack him.

The Koopa swordsmen charged at The Ranger, using one of his swords to strike the Ranger, while using the other sword to block any impending attacks from his falchion. The Ranger dodged the first strike from the swordsmen, then counterattacked with a strike from his falchion, easily blocked by the swordsmen and then knocked the Ranger back with a quick jab to The Ranger's torso, sending him a few feet back, crashing into a nearby table. The Ranger quickly got up, able to view the cocky grin on the swordsmen, thinking he himself could best The Ranger. "Face it Ranger, you will never stop us. If I can't beat you, at least I can slow you down."

"Just try it you overgrown turtle." The Ranger shouted back, making the swordsmen furious. "That may have done the trick." The Ranger thought as the swordsmen started charging out again towards The Ranger, this time attacking him with both swords. This would be the fatal mistake, as the Ranger dodged both of them easily, and fired an arrow point black at his skull. The arrow hit successfully, instantly taking out the swordsmen. The Ranger smiled at the satisfaction of winning that battle for a moment before rushing back to the rotunda. Luckily the only opposition from that room seemed to be that swordsmen, but it did take a lot of time to defeat him making The Ranger uncertain if he would be able to meet the Mario Brothers in time. "Please don't make me be too late…"

The Ranger then crossed the Big Red Star Door to the final room. He caught a glimpse of the Mario Brothers passing by the final Big Red Star Door to Bowser's sky arena. "This is my only chance." The ranger thought as he cupped his hands together to project his voice. "MARIO BROTHERS WAIT!" The Ranger yelled. It was too late; the Mario Brothers passed the door and didn't seem to hear him. "FUCK!" The Ranger yelled out, upset that he didn't get to them in time. The Ranger then ran out to the Big Red Star Door to see if he could catch up to them there, when there was a paper not touched by the Mario Brothers that became of interest to the Ranger. "Wonder what this is…" The ranger picked it up and read a few words before putting it back into his pocket: "A comet passed through the sky…"

"I'll read this later." The ranger thought as he got back to the Big Red Star Door. He then waited for it to open, opening ever so slowly with The Ranger tapping his foot in impatience. It finally opened, allowing The Ranger to attempt to catch up to the Mario Brothers. He then saw the pit to where the Mario Brothers went down previously. "This has got to be where Bowser is." However, before The Ranger could access the pit, there was a trap pit that was meant for The Ranger to step on, making fall down to the abyss below, not knowing what danger Bowser could throw for his ex-apprentice.


	35. Confessions of Love

The Mario Brothers landed in the dark sky arena with a thud. The skylights that would help illuminate the arena were off, not that they were on seeing that it was one of the ways to punish the princesses for helping The Ranger switch to the side of the Mario Brothers. The terrain of the arena felt like any other arena that they had been on previously. However, if examined closely, there were special indentations on the arena itself. These indentations were felt around the outline of the stronger, less collapsible parts of the arena. The outline made itself look like a star, which was Bowser's endgame: to take out the Mario Brothers one way or another. After what seemed like a few minutes, the Mario Brothers finally awakened, trying to get their bearing on the new dark surroundings.

"Ugh…," Mario murmured as his voice suddenly got more resounding due to the dark barren setup of the arena, not knowing that the princesses were in ear sight. "That's the last time I just jump into a pit without knowing what's going to be down there." Mario then turned to smack his brother upside the head to wake him up, which it did.

"YOWWW!" yelped Luigi as he got up, startled with the combination that he was stricken by the pain of Mario's hand and the fact that his new surroundings. The sudden yell by Luigi suddenly stirred the princesses up as well, surprised and relieved to hear the sound of Luigi's yell. Luigi then turned to Mario with a little anger built up beside him. "Now why in the world did you do that MARIO!?" Luigi yelled as rubbed the cheek that got slapped hard.

"Have you forgotten that we are on a mission here?" Mario questioned as he still was struggling to get his vision across with the darkness surrounding the Mario Brothers, not knowing that the princesses were right near them. "Now come on, we got to find the princesses quickly before Bowser gets to them again." With the princesses hearing that statement, they knew either through hearing things or actually finding out the Mario Brothers were right near them. Suddenly Peach's eyes watered up with tears, hearing the voice of the man she loved.

"M-Mario?" Peach's voice said weakly as her voice caught up to the exhaustion and the stress she had been under Bowser's torture as her body struggled to move to what she believed was the front of the cage she was locked in. "I-i-is t-that you?" Mario was quickly startled to the voice, knowing it was the voice of the woman that she loved, yet he couldn't tell whether that voice was real or not. Luigi was also startled yet hopeful that if he could hear Peach's voice, then Daisy must be somewhere nearby.

"P-Peach?" Mario questioned, trying to adjust his ears to see the direction to which the voice came from. He then felt around for Luigi in order to whisper in his ear. When he found him, he calmly found his ear and whispered something to him in order for the voice not to hear. "Am I hearing things?" Mario whispered thinking his love for Peach was making him hear things and start to become crazy.

"No trust me bro," Luigi whispered, confirming that he could hear Peach too. "I can hear her too." Mario was happy to hear that news, since he could call out to Peach without sounding crazy anymore.

"PEACH!" Mario yelled, this time waiting patiently to hear the direction in which Peach's voice was coming from.

"MARIO!" Peach yelled, which made Mario instinctively ran towards the direction in which her voice was coming from, until he bumped his head in front of the cage, falling down again making a fool out of himself. Peach silently giggled so that Mario couldn't hear, not wanting to embarrass her hero. "I'll have to make a note of that someday." Peach thought to herself as she reached out for Mario's hand with her own. Mario faintly saw a white glove coming out of the cage in which he bumped his head on, and took it with his own, both of them smiling as they found each other.

"I found Peach." Mario said, hoping his brother would hear him.

"That's great," Luigi thought, as his mind now focused to making sure that Daisy was alright. "Is Daisy safe too?" Luigi thought as his tone of voice became more concerned with each passing second. Daisy heard that voice, and then her eyes were starting to water as she was hearing the voice of the man that she loved.

"Luigi!" Daisy yelled, hoping he would hear her voice. Luigi was pleased to hear her voice and, just like Mario before, ran in the direction that he was hearing Daisy's voice. Unlike Mario, Luigi made sure to feel the bars of the cage that Daisy was trapped in and knelt down beside it. Luigi offered his hand for Daisy to take, which she did, both of them smiling in the darkness, knowing they had found each other. Then Mario and Luigi looked at each other, smiling that they accomplished the most crucial part of their mission: finding the princesses.

"Guess we got the first part done." Luigi said as he stared at Daisy's sapphire blue eyes while she stared back at Luigi, smiling that she was in the presence of her hero.

"I guess so." Mario replied doing the same thing with Peach's sapphire blue eyes as well. "Now it's time to get these lovely ladies out of their cages." Mario then tried to look for a good point to burn the bars of the cage as he put his fire flower power up. However, to Mario's surprise, the bars weren't burning up like they should be, apparently fire proof. "Dammit, Bowser must've fireproofed these cages."

"How on earth could Bowser do something like that?" Luigi asked, startled from the response that he got as well as the other three as it didn't come from Mario's voice.

"Because they aren't meant to be broken by the likes of you meddling plumbers." A voice came from behind both of the Mario Brothers, slashing the Mario Brothers in the arms leaving deep and nasty cuts. "In fact, they're here to be spectators."

To the surprise of the Mario Brothers and the princesses, the dark sky that covered the arena suddenly began to light. However, it wasn't a pleasant sky setting that the Mario Brothers would have expected. In fact the sky was a dark purple with shades of right sprinkled about, masking an evil presence in the air. The clouds below them were also purple which further completed the evil impression that the arena was getting. As soon as they were able to see, the Mario Brothers, grimacing from the jab in the arms before looked to princesses, who looked horror stricken from what they saw behind the Mario Brothers. When the Mario Brothers looked behind them, they were startled by the evil grinning presence of Bowser themselves.

"Welcome to my sky arena Mario Brothers," Bowser said, still smiling evilly at them. "Even though the final preparations aren't ready yet, you're just in time anyway."

"Whatever plans you have," Mario said as he stood up ready to face Bowser with Luigi by his side. "They are going to be put to rest here and now. It's over Bowser." Mario then got himself into a fighter stance with Luigi doing the same.

Bowser than laughed menacingly, not even flinching from the threats of both Mario Brothers, which got both of them pretty confused. "You two don't get do you?" Bowser asked, still smiling. The brothers shook their heads in response, which got Bowser to laugh even more. "Why do you think I left the princess out here so easily for you to initially attempt to rescue? I wanted you guys here to find them in order to draw you out of hiding, in order to get the final ingredients I need for my victory." Suddenly, Bowser grabbed both Mario Brothers instantly, surprising both of them as they didn't react quick enough to escape his grasp. The Mario Brothers tugged as hard as they could but they were caught in Bowser's tight grip and wasn't preparing to let go anytime soon. "THE POWER STARS!" Bowser quickly grabbed all the stars that the Mario Brothers had in their possession, from their hats and the various pockets of their attires. Bowser than threw the Mario Brothers back in the direction of the cages where the princesses were being held, both landing with a sickening thud. The ninety Power Stars that were collected suddenly merged into each other, creating the thing that Bowser wanted the most in order to end up victorious in this plot: the Grand Star. Bowser touched the power, feeling the immense power that was being delved within himself, as he suddenly was glowing all sorts of colors that, instead of being appealing in the presence of a hero, were ghastly and eye soring in the presence of a villain.

The Princesses watched in horror at the combination of Bowser getting the thing he needed to become invisible to the eyes of all, and the fact that the Mario Brothers lied on the ground, slowly getting back up in a fighter stance to fight Bowser. However in their minds, they knew already what was happening: Bowser had won, and wasn't going to let up anytime soon. "This can't be happening." Peach thought as she felt like she was in some terrible nightmare with Bowser having the upper hand.

Daisy was speechless as she could only focus her attention at the instant power Bowser had surged within him. Bowser, as soon as the power reached within his body, looked at both princesses with a sinister smile spread upon his face. "What's the matter princesses?" Bowser asked, his voice becoming more deep and monster sounding with the power that the stars gave them. "It's just me ol BOWSER! The EASILY DEFETABLE MONSTER now turned GOD!" Bowser let out another cackling laugh that boomed in the air, sending Daisy and Peach to retreat in their cages in fear.

"NOT IF WE HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!" Yelled the Mario Brothers as they stood up getting ready to fight, pleasing Bowser even more.

"If you two think you can defeat me in this form, go ahead AND TRY!" Bowser boomed as he and the Mario Brothers charged at each other. Mario and Luigi attempted to kick Bowser's face in, but the power surging within him just allowed the kicks to just bounce off like rock with no damage happening at all. Mario and Luigi than fell back from the recoil from the kick, allowing Bowser to get two hard punches to both brothers, one fist pounding on each brother. The attack was brutal, but the Mario Brothers refused to back down. The Mario Brothers then turned on their fire flower power ups, and tried to use fireballs against Bowser. However, they just reflected off of him. Bowser then counterattacked with his flame breath, which was dark blue instead of the usual red. The overwhelming power of this new flame attack affected both Mario and Luigi even with the fire flower power up, running around in circles and stop drop and rolling in order to put out the fires. This resulted in burn marks across their bodies. The attacks Bowser were landing were already taking their effect on them as the Mario Brothers began to feel exhausted as the combined weight of their adventure and Bowser's new form was settling in. "HAD ENOUGH YET?"

"NEVER!" Yelled Mario Brothers as they threw themselves against Bowser. Bowser in turned grabbed both Mario Brothers and threw them back at the cages, fracturing Mario and Luigi's right arms. Mario and Luigi, grimacing in pain collapsed with Mario in front of Peach and Luigi in front of Daisy. With nothing else to lose, the Mario Brothers decided it was time to tell their respective princess how they felt.

"Peach…" Mario said, his voice growing weaker as his strength was waning." I-I'm sorry…" Peach ran over to Mario, putting her hands on his face, smiling towards Mario to assure him everything was going to be alright even though at the moment it was the exact opposite.

"It's ok," Peach said in a friendly tone, looking in Mario's face. "You and Luigi did the best that you could, and that's more that I can say from any other person that I've met in my life." Mario then thought back to the article mentioning Peach's parents and expressed doubt about that, but she let her have that fact to herself until she was ready to open up about them.

"Peach…" Mario said as feebly grabbed Peach's hands, which surprised her, making her face flush a bit. "I-I think you should know, before Bowser has his way with us…I love y-you." Peach was taken aback by this remark as she realized that Mario has the same feelings for her that Peach had for him.

"If only you had said that before this point." Peach thought as she started to cry in front of Mario. Mario then thought he had done something wrong by saying that, and immediately started to feel bad for saying something like that. But before Mario had the chance to speak, Peach cut him off with her voice. "M-Mario…I l-love you too. If this is to be our last moments, then I'm glad you're at my side." Then, not knowing the outcome, Mario and Peach shared a kiss, a small one trying hard not to get their hopes up but it was something to look forward too if they were going to get out of this situation alive. They then smiled as Mario laid close to Peach still intending to protect her from Bowser even in his weakened state.

Meanwhile, Luigi turned to face Daisy, who smiled playfully at her even though she knew what was going to be Luigi's fate at the hands of Bowser. "D-Daisy, I-I…," Luigi was saying, still nervous as always when he was around Daisy until she cut him off.

"Let me guess, you love me don't you?" Luigi nodded sheepishly as he began to blush, thinking he was going to get rejected by her. "Good, cause I love you my green hero." Daisy then tugged on Luigi's overall and pulled him close to her and gave Luigi a small kiss on the lips as well, making Luigi and Daisy blush even more. "That's for sacrificing yourself for me Weegee. Once we get out of here, I promise that little kiss won't be all that you're getting." Daisy winked at Luigi, as they both smiled together.

Bowser chuckled heavily as they approached Mario and Luigi, who shielded the princess with the intent on defending them until the bitter end. "This is REAL CUTE. The MARIO BROTHERS FINDING LOVE AT THEIR LAST MOMENTS! TOO BAD IT WILL BE THE END FOR YOU! BUT I'LL GIVE YOU A LAST SHOT AT ME!" Bowser then turned off the Grand Star, which he kept in his shell, and stopped becoming invulnerable. "Go ahead, one little shot, I promise I won't let you miss." Both Brothers, realizing that Bowser was toying with them, raised their left fists, turned on their fire flower power ups and burned Bowser's both legs, causing him to yelp in pain. "OWWWWW!" Bowser yelled, not expecting that type of pain, causing his rage to be built up, brought to the breaking point with the meddling of the plumbers. "THAT'S IT I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF BOTH OF YOU! IT'S TIME TO END THIS BOUT ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Bowser then began to charge up a powerful flame attack, not thinking to turn on the Grand Star back on.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." A voice familiar to the Mario Brothers and the Princesses as well as Bowser, who was startled by that remark.

"Who just said tha-" Bowser said before being interrupted by a strong kick to his face, sending him flying backwards a few feet before falling to the ground. Bowser rose up in fury, startled by the presence of the figure below him. "You…I thought you were."

"Dead, not when justice has to be carried out. Justice that starts with the end of you." The figure took out his falchion, preparing for a fight.


	36. The Ranger's Ascent to the Sky

_1 hour earlier…_

The Ranger landed feet first into what appeared to be the outskirts of a secret Koopa base situated below the sky arena, where Mario and Luigi had landed previously. The sky around the secret Koopa base had the same sky as the arena above, so it was still vastly dark around. "So much for a pleasant day…" He thought as he observed the area around the Koopa base. It was a tightly compacted base that was about the size of a small castle. The base's buildings looked gray and unappealing, the style to match the dark and dreary image that the Koopa Empire presented. That were also spotlights that covered the base, allowing the Koopa inside the base to be able to see anything that presented itself as an intruder. "So much for sneaking up then…" The Ranger carefully infiltrated the base by climbing up one of the walls of the base. When he got up the tallest point, he directed himself to the unseen edges of the base, to avoid himself being spotted by the enemy. However, the Ranger had to be careful as one small mistake could cost him to fall to the vast abyss below, which predicted certain death for those who did. However, the Ranger was a born climber, having been on several missions like this before.

As soon as he got up to the edge of the unseen wall, he climbed up; taking note that right now no one could detect his presence. He then snuck around until he saw a group of Koopa just standing around in an area, making small talk with one another. "Another day in the life boys huh?" One of the Koopas said, his arm leaning on one of the walls of the base, with a tone of cockiness in his voice.

"Seems like an eternity with all the crap we've ended up doing ever since we dragged the princesses up here." One of the other troops replied, his arms crossed, frustrated that he was stuck doing this assignment instead of patrolling back in Toadstool Castle. "Do we even know if the Mario Brothers made it up this far?"

"No, but I guarantee you tha-"The first Koopa said before being interrupted by his voice communicator vibrating in his pocket, indicating that he received a message. "Hold on let me take this." The Koopa then turned on his voice communicator, ready to communicate with whoever was on the other line. "Yeah talk to me."

"I have them now. I can sense their presence. Tell your troops to keep a lookout for any 'hidden surprises'." The Koopa's face turned into a smile, like he was finally ready to commit the revenge he so desperately wanted to happen.

"YESSIR!" The Koopa replied in an enthusiastic tone as he shut off his communicator. "Looks like the boss has the Mario Brothers in his grasp." The Koopas chuckled happily as this statement, as The Ranger had a worried expression on his face.

"Crap," he thought as he quickly drew out his bow. "I've got to reach them quickly." He then looked at the group of Koopas, knowing there would be more opposition ahead once he took them down. "Looks like I'll have to get through this entire base in order to reach them."

Meanwhile, the other Koopas were discussing their victory plans once the Mario Brothers were eliminated through Bowser's doing. "Man, I'm just glad we'll be able to get off this forsaken world and get back to doing what we do best: take over such pitiful kingdoms such as this."

"Amen man," another Koopa replied as he gave the troop who said that a fist bump. "How about that Sarasaland place too? You do realize Bowser has the princess from that kingdom too under his possession."

"Two kingdoms and two dead plumbers. Sounds golden to me." Another Koopa chimed in.

"OH YEAH!" All the Koopas yelled, celebrating what appeared to be an impending victory. All of a sudden, their celebrating was cut short when they saw an arrow approaching them, ending one of the Koopa's life. The leader of the group examined the body of the Koopa, revealing the worst to them: he was in fact dead.

"Fuck me," the leader thought as he stepped back to the group. "He's dead." The leader, growing angry at his dead comrade, looked all over the base, trying to find the hidden assailant who committed the crime. "ALRIGHT WHERE ARE YOU?!" The angry Koopa demanded, wanting to find the person responsible.

"Right here you sack of shi-" The Ranger replied as he drew another arrow, and hit one of the other troops in the skull, instantly killing him. The other troops took notice and they spotted The Ranger.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes." The leader replied drawing his sword out to attack him. "I suppose you think you can get through all of us but you are sadly mistaken. You're no meddling plumber." The other troops laughed along at this statement as they grabbed their sword, and proceeded to close up on the Ranger.

"No, but I'm a much deadlier weapon than you can possible imagine right now." The Ranger said in a harsh tone before drawing out his falchion and charged at the impending congregate that was closing in on him. The Koopa troops tried to slash him down with their swords, but The Ranger was able to dodge them easily. The Ranger then replied with a counterattack, taking two of them down with a single swoop before rolling over to this left, going more towards the direction opposite of the nearest walls of the base. The Koopas came at him again, before The Ranger picked them apart with arrows, firing at all of them in a single rapid fire succession. Because there were about three of them left from the circle, including the leader, they all were slain pretty easily, allowing The Ranger to rest easily for a while.

However, what The Ranger failed to notice was the trail of security cameras that caught The Ranger's devastating blows to the small group of Koopas taken down previously. This caused an alarm to go off, alerting all troops in the base to his presence. The alarm wasn't loud enough to warn anyone in the sky arena, so at least he could get there without any notice. "Just my luck to have that stupid alarm pulled." The Ranger thought, chastising himself for allowing that to happen. Then The Ranger had an idea: if the spotlights were taken out, then there would be no way for the Koopa troops to see The Ranger at all. "It could also have some 'unintended' consequences." The Ranger smiled deviously at this thought as he took out his electric arrows and started firing at all of the spotlights. Within a few minutes, after a lot of sparks of flying in each and every direction, the spotlights were disabled, rendering themselves useless. The chain reaction also caused chained lightning to fly around the base, rendering traps for The Ranger to benefit from as some of the Koopa were taken out from the voltage shocks. However, there was a good chunk of them left, meaning The Ranger would have to take them down the old fashioned way. "This is going to be fun." The Ranger murmured as he prepared to make his move, knowing that his presence could still be unnoticed.

"WHERE IS HE!" One of the Koopa troops yelled, audible enough so that people within the base could hear. "I mean how does ONE person get out of here unnoticed when we've got a small army packed into this shi-hole."

"I don't see you knowing where he is." Another guard replied, unable to see a few feet in from of him and beyond due to the spotlights being taken down.

"Wherever he is, we've got to find him befor-" Another troop said before being shot down with an arrow, indicating that The Ranger started his next series of attacks.

"Find him quick befor-" Another guard said before being taken down with another arrow. The guards felt the sickening thud of the dead troop, terrified that they could be next. Their fears were then met with a harsh reality: an arrow right at the skull. Everyone was taken down until one guard was left standing.

"Sh-Sh-Show yourself c-cow-coward." The last troop replied in a terrified voice, not wanting to meet the grisly end of his comrades. The Ranger dropped down into the base until he was right behind the last Koopa troop. He then drew his falchion out, ready to strike him. He then tapped his shoulder in order to get him spinning around towards his direction. The troop widened his eyes in fear as he turned around to meet the eyes of The Ranger.

"Surprise…" The Ranger said before striking the Koopa down.

"AHHHHHH-" The Koopa troop ended up screaming before being decapitated by the falchion's strike, eliminating the last part of the threat that the secret base had, giving The Ranger freedom to go to the sky arena. The Ranger looked up at the sky just in time to see it glow into the horrifying colors that the Mario Brothers, princesses and Bowser saw as well back at the sky arena.

"Shit, I got to get there now." The Ranger thought, making his way to the accessible pathway to the arena. He then stopped dead in his tracks when something caught his eye at the top of one of the buildings. The figure looked down at The Ranger, smiling that he was able to display the furious combat skills that he did.

"Still the same, cunning yet dangerous," The figure thought as he jumped down to the building into the abyssal gap below. He then got into what appeared to be a medium sized flying car, big enough for two passengers, riding it over towards what appeared to be the clouds below as if awaiting for someone to meet it there.

While he did that, The Ranger having seen the figure for a little over a second wiped his eyes thinking he was just seeing things and saw that nothing was at the top of the building anymore. "Maybe I'm just seeing things…" The Ranger thought as he made his way to the pathway. He saw what appeared to be a small set of stairs that would take him the rest of the way. "I hope I'm not too late to stop them." While he was ascending the stairs, he could faintly hear the voice of his master apparently talking to someone.

"This is REAL CUTE. The MARIO BROTHERS FINDING LOVE AT THEIR LAST MOMENTS! TOO BAD IT WILL BE THE END FOR YOU! BUT I'LL GIVE YOU A LAST SHOT AT ME!"

"No, I've got to hurry." The Ranger murmured as he vastly climbed the stairs, knowing he had minutes, maybe even seconds to save the Mario Brothers from a grisly fate by Bowser. While climbing the stairs, he could still hear his master talk, horrifying him with various images in his mind of bowser killing the Mario Brothers.

""Go ahead, one little shot, I promise I won't let you miss." After a few seconds, reaching the last steps of the stairway, The Ranger heard his ex-master scream in pain. When he reached the sky arena, still completely undetected, he found Bowser disseminating upon the Mario Brothers who looked like they were in a weakened state.

"THAT'S IT I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF BOTH OF YOU! IT'S TIME TO END THIS BOUT ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Bowser then began to charge up a powerful flame attack, not thinking to turn on the Grand Star back on.

"No…" The Ranger thought as he ferociously charged at Bowser, falchion in hand. "Not if I have anything to say about it." He said, as Bowser's attention shifted to The Ranger, canceling the fire attack he had planned for the Mario Brothers.

"Who just said tha-" Bowser said before being interrupted by a strong kick to his face, sending him flying backwards a few feet before falling to the ground. Bowser rose up in fury, startled by the presence of The Ranger below him. "You…I thought you were."

"Dead, not when justice has to be carried out. Justice that starts with the end of you." The Ranger then took out his falchion, preparing for a fight. "And justice can't come any sooner you bastard." The ranger thought, ready to face his ex-master in a duel to the death.


	37. Ex-Apprentice vs Ex-Master

Bowser looked at the falchion that The Ranger was holding. It was stained with what looked like to be blood from Koopas. His rage grew further just by looking at his sword, thinking that his loyal soldiers were harmed by his presence. "Whose blood is that?" Bowser asked as he pointed to The Ranger's falchion, making The Ranger smile to himself.

"Guess I pulled a chord in this oaf's heart?" The Ranger though as he cleared his throat to speak. "Let's just say that wonderful base you had installed to keep intruders like me out has now been decommissioned by my hand. So yes this is Koopa's blood but I believe there's probably a mix of about 30 Koopas I imagine. Everyone else I had electrocuted or slain with arrows." The Ranger then drew his bow, ready to attack Bowser at that moment. "And now I have one more Koopa to slay." Bowser, furious with this statement, decided to now turn on the Grand Star, emitting the power that he had just a few minutes ago.

"YOU THINK YOU COULD STOP ME!" Bowser said in his darker and lower tone now that the Grand Star was activated. "YOU KNOW OF MY POWER!" The Ranger, smiling to himself, didn't back down from Bowser's comment, ready to fight him head on.

"Ehh, maybe I'll get lucky." The Ranger replied as he loaded arrow onto his quiver, making the final preparations necessary to fight his old master. The smile that was plastered on his face turned to a look of seriousness as he was ready to settle things once and for all. "This is the end for you my master."

"FUNNY I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THE SAME!" Bowser replied as he charged at The Ranger, knowing full well that even The Ranger's best abilities couldn't beat him in his Grand Star form. While he was charging, The Ranger fired two piercing arrows that headed straight for Bowser's chest. Bowser stopped for a moment, feigning The Ranger to think that he had won the battle, allowing him to let his guard down for just a minute.

"How the mighty have fallen." The ranger commented as he put his weapon away, thinking he would die on the spot. "That was easier than I thought." The Ranger thought, waiting for Bowser to make his move. Bowser pretended to hack and cough blood as though he was defeated.

"I…I…I" Bowser said as he still was pretending to fake death. "I…Oh I'M JUST KIDDING!" Bowser then got back up, grinning at his opponent, to whom The Ranger was surprised not expecting him to pull that move nor be still standing from where the arrows penetrated Bowser.

"I aimed straight for his damn heart." The Ranger thought, as he quickly got back to his guard, drawing his falchion out. Bowser then pulled that arrows out, and threw one at Mario, hitting him squarely at the stomach. Mario uttered a grunt of pain from how fast and how hard the arrow penetrated him. Peach, who was still by Mario's side, had an expression of worry upon her face.

"Mario!" Peach exclaimed, trying to put pressure on Mario's wound in order to minimize the bleeding. Mario than gave her quick thumbs up and a small smile in order to reassure Peach that was still ok. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to stand by your side." Mario gave a small chuckle as the blood loss he was experiencing now coupled with the exhaustion from the adventure gave him little time left to be consciousness. Peach then looked at Bowser, who evilly grinned at her as he took out the last arrow from his chest. He then aimed that arrow at Luigi's stomach, who uttered a cry of pain.

"Son of a-" Luigi quipped as Daisy was doing as much as she could to minimalize Luigi's bleeding. "Daisy I-" Before Luigi could say anymore, Daisy interrupted him.

"Shhh," Daisy said trying to soothe Luigi's discomfort. "Don't talk too much, save your strength for when you and Mario get us out of here."

"Ok." Luigi said who was also having the same problem slipping in and out of consciousness. Daisy gave the same look to Bowser, whose attention was now shifted to The Ranger.

"YOU SEE!" Bowser said as he stood a few feet in front of The Ranger. "I CAN'T BE STOPPED WITH FLIMSY ARROWS! BESIDES, THEY MAKE GREAT PROJECTILES TO FIRE AT THOSE MEDDLING PLUMBERS! YOU BETTER HURRY WITH WHATEVER HEROIC PROWERSS YOU HAVE RANGER CAUSE YOUR FRIENDS DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT!" The Ranger looked back at the Mario Brothers and the princesses, and then shifted his attention to Bowser.

"I gotta end this fight soon, otherwise they'll…" The Ranger thought, shedding the last part of that thought to come to his mind. He didn't want to think of them having their fate sealed here. "They deserve much better." The Ranger then pulled his falchion out, and ran straight into Bowser. He tried to slash Bowser's right arm, but the sword bounced off of bowser like he was made out of rock. "WHAT?" Bowser just laughed at The Ranger's feeble attempt and slammed down on the ground, creating a shockwave sending The Ranger a few feet back. "Guess that won't work. Let's try for the head." The Ranger quickly got up, and swung for Bowser's head with his falchion, making him off balance. However, the same result happened, the sword just bounced off Bowser's head again without leaving a scratch.

The Ranger fell down on the floor, allowing Bowser to grab a hold of him with one hand. "NOW IT'S MY TURN!" Bowser than threw The Ranger down on the floor again, head first, which made The Ranger unconscious from the heavy blow to the head. Everyone was silent for a moment, before Bowser terminated the silence with unending laughter. "SO THIS WAS MY APPRENTICE?! PATHETIC, COULDN'T OUT UP A MEASILY FIVE MINUTES AGAINST ME! The Mario Brothers and the Princesses were silent, their comrade fallen to the ground, not even moving a muscle.

"Is he…" The four of them thought, trying hard not to entertain the thought that he could be dead. Not after all five of them have been through with the adventure, the capture, the betrayal, with everything that had taken place within this last three days. All of it was going to come to an end with Bowser's might.

"HEHEHE! SORRY APPRENTICE," Bowser said as he prepared to charge up a super powerful fire attack. "BUT IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE TO FALL WITH THE MIGHTY!"

"I'm not letting go down like this," Mario thought as he pulled the arrow out of his stomach, which exacerbated the amount of blood coming out of him. Mario then began to feel lightheaded, the amount of blood loss almost taking its toll. Peach, with a worried look on her face, was confused to what Mario was planning to do.

"Mario what are you-" Peach asked, before being interrupted by Mario, who used his left hand to put a finger on Peach's lips.

"Don't worry, I got this my princess." Mario said, as he threw the arrow right on Bowser's face.

Meanwhile, the same decision came to Luigi's mind, not wanting to lose a close ally like The Ranger. "One small sacrifice, like he had done for us." Luigi thought as he pulled the arrow from his stomach. Daisy was worried what he was about to do, as it could ignite Bowser's rage even more causing him to do things that she didn't want to think about.

"Please Luigi don't do this." Daisy said, tears coming straight from her face, to which Luigi put his left hand around her cheek, caressing the tear that had fallen from Daisy's face, and landed straight for his glove. "I don't want to lose you."

"It had to be done my love." Luigi said as he put his lips toward Daisy's cheek thinking it would be the last time do to this. Luigi then took a deep breath and threw the arrow right on Bowser's face. Both arrows hit at Bowser's face, on both cheeks. Bowser than looked back at the two Mario Brothers, a serious glare being cast upon them.

"I'LL END YOU LATER APPRENTICE!" Bowser said as he shifted his attention to the Mario Brothers. "THERE'S JUST SOME TRASH I HAVE TO SWEEP!" Bowser then grabbed the two arrows from his cheeks and slowly walked over to the Mario Brothers, wanting to savor the moment that he could end Mario and Luigi's lives bringing the final obstacles to his future plans down.

Meanwhile, The Ranger slipped into a dream landing him in a strange place. "Where the hell am I?" The Ranger thought as he got a bearing on his surroundings. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The scenery was breathtaking as he appeared to be in a garden of sorts, surrounded by the frontier of space with the stars and the planets surrounding them. "I…" The Ranger was puzzled, trying to understand what happened as he was trying to remember what happened beforehand. "I was fighting Bowser and now I-"The Ranger's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he looked across his way to spot a beautiful woman looking at space too who was a few feet away from him.

The Ranger rushed up to her. The woman smiled at him, like she knew who he was. "Oh hello Jordan." The woman replied, making The Ranger come to a complete stop. He had just met this woman, in a dream no less, yet she knows who exactly he is. The Ranger was dumbfounded as the only mentioning of who he truly was based on all the criminals in Colorado that he fought, having known of The Ranger's persona for a good few months having stopped their operations for so long.

"How do you know my name?" The Ranger asked, still seeing that the woman was smiling at him.

"Oh you're so silly my special one." The woman replied, putting her hands around The Ranger, kissing his lips ever so passionately. The Ranger was taken aback, now really confused.

"And now she's kissing me…" The Ranger thought as he just let her continue. The woman just smiled at him lovingly, The Ranger still confused about the situation. "I'm your what?" The Ranger asked, this dream feeling too surreal. The woman just kissed his cheek.

"Your special one." The woman whispered into his ear. "Come let's lay down on the grass."

"Ok…" The Ranger replied, still questioning his presence here in the dream. The woman took his hand as they lay down on the grass at the garden. Then a bright flash of light hit The Ranger as he pulled himself out of unconsciousness, going back to the Sky Arena. The Ranger stirred a bit, before waking up, getting a bearing on his surroundings to make sure that he was still in the right place. "What kind of dream was that?" The Ranger thought shaking his head in confusion. The Ranger than saw Bowser going after the Mario Brothers slowly.

"No I've got to stop him." The Ranger got up as he ran towards him. "Even if it is at the cost of my own life." The Ranger then drew his sword, having one more idea of where to hit Bowser.

Meanwhile, Bowser came to a complete stop when he was a few feet away from Mario and Luigi, clutching the two arrows that the Mario Brothers threw at his face in his fists intending to stick them in their chests ending their lives. "WELL MARIO BROTHERS!" Bowser replied a wide evil grin spread upon his face. "WE'VE HAD SOME GOOD TIMES. BUT NOW I THINK IT'S TIME WE DEPART WAYS. I'VE GOT BIG PLANS IN MIND. WHILE YOU TWO HAVE SOME DYING TO CATCH UP ON!" Bowser cackled as the Mario Brothers looked back at the princesses that they loved, both of them having tears in their eyes.

The Mario Brothers tried to say something but knew it wouldn't do any good. No matter what they could say or they did, it wouldn't take away the fact that in just a few seconds Bowser would take away all that they had. "Goodbye my love." Both brothers thought as they closed their eyes, ready to meet what they thought was going to be their untimely fate. Bowser then raised his fists in the air, holding the arrows in his hands and was ready to lunge the arrows inside both brother's chests. Then all of a sudden, Bowser stopped as he felt something breaking that came from his back. "What the…" Bowser thought as he realized that the glow emanating from him was gone. "No what is happening!" Bowser said as his normal tone of voice was being shown. The power of the Grand Star was not in him anymore. Bowser looked behind to see The Ranger, and froze at the spot with a wide look in his eyes.

The Ranger was alive and well, and glowing heroic colors. Colors that turned his attire golden like a hero. The Grand Star was in his hands, and he held the power that Bowser was holding just a few minutes ago. The Ranger then tossed the Grand Star to the Mario Brothers. "They need it more than I do." The Ranger thought looking back to see if the Grand Star was responding to them. Fortunately, it was as the Mario Brothers were being kept alive in the meantime. Both princesses were shedding tears of joy as their heroes were being kept alive by the Power of the Grand Star.

The Mario brothers looked back at the princesses that they loved so much. Mario looked back at Peach giving her a wink. "Told ya this plumber could do it." Peach giggled a bit as she held Mario by her side, both enjoying the confused and fearful expressions Bowser was under.

Luigi then looked back at Daisy, who just went over to Luigi and cried in his chest scared by the fact that she was about to lose him. Luigi didn't know how to comfort her at that time, having not many skills with the ladies but he did the best that he could by just holding her. "Don't you DARE scare me like that again!" Daisy shouted as he was trying to get words and bouts of crying together to make a coherent sentence.

"Y-Yes Mam." Luigi replied as they just held each other, happy they could be together at that point, infused by the power of the Grand Star.

Bowser looked back at The Ranger. "But how did he get it?" Bowser thought as he rubbed the part of his body where his shell should have been with his hands. To his dismay, however, the shell wasn't there. "Where's my SHELL!" He thought to himself searching frantically for it with his hand before looking back at the ground. The shell was broken into a million pieces, the one thing that the Grand Star could not protect. He then looked back at The Ranger who just grinned at him, raising his falchion up, preparing for the last bit of the fight. "You DID THIS!" Bowser shouted pointing a finger at his ex-apprentice. "My plans have failed because of YOU and I-" Bowser was then interrupted a heavy punch from the Ranger's fist, sending him flying back toward the middle of the arena.

"You're right I did do that." The Ranger confessed as he charged back at Bowser, stomping his tail hard with his foot, causing a yelp of pain from Bowser. "I broke your shell. But guess who trained me to do that? You!" Bowser raised a fist to punch The Ranger back, but missed him and instead allowed The Ranger to stab his arm, making Bowser yelp again in pain, with blood seeping out of it. "Guess who decided to bring me along to the Mushroom Kingdom to help out with plan? You!" Bowser than tried the same attack with the other arm, but the same result happened, which caused Bowser to screech in agony with the reality settling in now: The Ranger had beat him.

Bowser got up gingerly, commencing his fire attack against The Ranger. The Ranger easily dodged it, by rolling around from side to side in the opposite direction that Bowser was making his fire attack. The Ranger than stabbed Bowser's stomach with the falchion, disabling Bowser's fire attack. "Guess you betrayed me in the end when I wanted to help him along. YOU!" Bowser was the edge of the arena, about ready to fall off, making one last stand with the Ranger. "Guess whose miserable life I'm going to put an end to. You." The Ranger than took out a poison arrow from his quiver and put it in his bow and aimed it for Bowser's chest. The Ranger than fired it, hitting Bowser straight in the heart. Bowser than ushered a low whimper of pain as the damage took its final toll. The Ranger then rushed up to Bowser and kicked the arrow in with a might force, with the arrow pierced directly in Bowser's heart now. Bowser than fell off the arena floor as he was descending to the dark clouds below. The Ranger than looked back at what he believed was the falling corpse of Bowser.

"This…This…This doesn't…end for you…my ex-apprentice." Bowser thought as he reached for a remote he had hidden from everyone and pressed the red button on it. He then threw the remote away to the abyss as he prepared to embrace the death that was coming to him.


	38. New Tides from Old Waters (Conclusion)

As The Ranger was walking away, he felt a huge tremor coming from below his feet. "What the…" The Ranger thought as the vibrations became more and more violent, throwing him to the ground. Mario and Luigi, fully awake thanks to the power of the Grand Star, just looked at The Ranger in horror as The Ranger found himself not being able to get back up. The Ranger looked back up at them, realizing that they needed to get out of there and quick. "If only there was something that I could do for them." The ranger then looked over to the broken shell fragments that laid before the arena. In the distance The Ranger saw what appeared to be two big keys. "They must be for those cages that the princesses are trapped in." The Ranger ran with all his might, still feeling dizzy from the head attack that Bowser gave them, ran towards the area where the keys were located which were moving away from him ever so slightly no thanks to the vibrations coming from the arena.

Just as the keys were about to fall off the edge, The Ranger dived for them, grabbing the keys with his fingertips. "YES"! The Ranger exclaimed to himself as he managed to get back up. Then, another chilling fact came across: some of the arena platforms were breaking apart, falling into the clouds below. The only pieces that would be left would be the area inside the indentations. "Another one of Bowser's tricks…" The Ranger murmured as he contemplated what to do next. He looked over to where the Mario Brothers and the princesses, who would fall off to the clouds below unless they got out of here quick. The Ranger let out a small sigh, knowing in his heart what he had to do. "MARIO, LUIGI!" The Ranger yelled, tossing the keys to the Mario Brothers. They were able to catch them quite easily. "Get the princesses and yourselves outta here quick! There's no telling when the platforms could break apart."

The Mario Brothers quickly unlocked the princesses' cages. "But how are we supposed to leave when the platform is breaking apart quickly?" Mario thought as he looked back at the Grand Star, realizing that it could act as a huge platform, due to its massive size. "EVERYONE GET ON!" Mario yelled as both princesses and both brothers made it onto the Grand Star. "YOUR TURN RANGER!" The Ranger ran as fast as he could to the Grand Star, realizing that he had a limited amount of time left. With one more usable step left before the platform broke apart, The Ranger leaped as far as he could to make it to the Grand Star. However, the leap was too short, and soon realized that he was not going to make it. Mario then grabbed the Ranger's hand just in the nick of time before he would fall to his untimely death. "Got ya." Mario said as he pulled The Ranger up to the platform, allowing both of them to collectively breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness," The Ranger thought as he was able to sit on the Grand Star while the arena disappeared before them, the shape of a giant star being the only area of the platform left intact. "How did you know this thing was going to fly?" The Ranger asked, being able to relax for the first time in a while.

"I didn't." Mario replied as they made their way back to the portal.

Meanwhile, Bowser was falling tremendously, being in and out of consciousness enough to see that the arena platform was destroyed to his making, effectively ending his enemies one way or another. "Well if I went out, at least I went out with a bang." Bowser thought as he closed his eyes for what he thought was the last time, descending to the clouds below.

All of a sudden, a medium sized flying cruiser picked up Bowser's descent, waiting for him at the exact position for where we would crash into it. "And here's our fallen fool now." The figure thought as he braced himself for Bowser's impact on the car. He opened the cruiser window, and dragged Bowser into the backseat. The cruiser than drove into the distance as its destination was the Darklands.

The Mario Brothers, the princesses, and The Ranger all made it back to the front of the final Big Red Star door, relieved that their adventure was finally over. "WAHOO!" The Mario Brothers yelled as they both bro hugged each other, grateful that they had defeated their arch enemy for what seemed to be the last time with the help of The Ranger. "WE DID IT!" The princesses, ecstatic that the journey was over too, turned to face the respective hero that they loved. The Mario Brothers faced their respective princess, removing their caps and bowing down to the majestic beauty that they held. The princesses giggled as emitted a small playful smile in their direction.

Peach, knelt down to Mario's height making him blush, planted a kiss on his lips. Instead of the small hopeful kiss they shared back at the Sky Arena, this one was more passionate as they seemed to lock into the fervent feelings they had for each other. After what seemed like a few minutes, they held hands, looking deeply into each other as they began the birth of a new relationship between each other.

Meanwhile, Daisy pulled Luigi back up from his overalls. She then gently grabbed Luigi's neck with her hands and locked his lips with hers, with both of them showing the same emotion that Mario and Peach were showing. They then locked hands as they silently celebrated the birth of their own relationship.

The Ranger looked at both pairings, feeling happy for his newfound friends as well as awkward at the same time. "Hey love birds," The Ranger said, getting the heroes and princesses' attention. "We should probably go downstairs and alert everyone that you four are still alive." The Ranger chuckled a bit at that statement, realizing how silly it was to say that. With Luigi and Daisy holding hands as well as Mario and Peach holding hands, the five of them made it all the way down to the main hall.

Toadsworth, who had been enjoying his time off in the Isle of Delfino, finally saw the heroes, the princesses, and his first look at The Ranger. "Thank goodness all of you are alright." Toadsworth said as he rushed over to the group of five and gave Peach a hug, to which Peach returned the favor. "I was so worried about you. When I came back to Toadstool Castle, I saw the place in shambles and feared for the worst." He then turned to look at Mario and Luigi who looked wounded, but able to hold their own. "I'm glad, thought that Master Mario and Master Luigi were able to take care of things."

"Actually Toadsworth," Mario interjected, causing Toadsworth to raise an eyebrow of curiosity. "You have to give credit to another hero as well: The Ranger." The Ranger bowed down in front of Toadsworth, with Toadsworth doing the same thing. "Toadsworth is the Stewart to the Mushroom Kingdom."

"It's an honor to meet such a noble toad such as yourself." The ranger replied, reaching out to shake Toadsworth's hand.

"Believe me my friend." Toadsworth replied as he met the Ranger's hand giving him a firm handshake. "The pleasure is all mine to meet another hero of our great Mushroom Kingdom." He then looked over to Princess Daisy. "Erm and Sarasaland for that matter as well. Come we should prepare a heroic feast to our now three heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom." With that, Toadsworth took off to the kitchen along with the two princesses, who wanted to help Toadsworth prepare the feast.

This left Mario, Luigi, and The Ranger left in the main hall. They then decided to go to the lounge room to catch some much needed rest. "Wait," The Ranger said before they made their way to that particular room. "There's something that needs to be taken of." The other two agreed as they made their way to the bunker. "The Power Stars have to go in that chest over there." The Ranger pointed to the chest where the Power Stars were initially kept before being sucked back up by that large pipe. The three of them carried the Grand Star over to the chest. They dropped it in, where it suddenly broke apart into ninety Power Stars all at once, safe in the home they belonged in. "There, now we can relax."

The three of them went back to the lounge room, where they proceeded to relax and watch some TV while the feast was getting ready. "You know Mario Brothers," The Ranger began as they were watching a show involving a black, urban Chicago family and their interactions with a smart yet nerdy black teen. "I think the Princesses deserve credit for being heroes too. Without them, I don't think any of us would have escaped the fire arena before." The Mario Brothers agreed, as their thoughts were becoming fixated on the princesses and the food that was being cooked in the kitchen. "That food does smell good." The ranger thought as now he was starting to think about the food too. Trying to distract himself from the delicious smell, he tried to make more small talk with the Mario Brothers. "So you really love them don't you?"

"The princesses?" The Mario Brothers collectively asked, with The Ranger nodding his head. "Oh yea!"

"There's just something about Peach that I've grown to appreciate you know." Mario said, with the Ranger patiently listening and nodding his head whenever he agreed to his points. "She's not just beautiful, but she's smart, a caring person, athletic, and overall a great person to be around. Our personalities may not match all that much, but that's what makes it so fun to be around her. To be presented with that challenge."

"I agree with most of what Mario's been saying." Luigi interjected, showing his reasons for why he feels the way he does for Princess Daisy. "It's just that inexplicable feeling I get around her."

"You guys make great points." The Ranger replied, as he kept one eye on the screen and one on the Mario Brothers. "Heck there was one time when Bowser tried to set me up with one of them."

"He Did!" The Mario Brothers instantly responded, making them a little worried that The Ranger might try to steal at least one of the princesses away from her respective Mario Brother.

"Relax." The Ranger quickly said in order to calm the Mario Brothers down. "I won't be going after them. They're yours and yours alone. And anyone who has a problem with that." The Ranger then pointed to his bow and sword. "Will have to answer that to me. But yes, there was one time that Bowser believed I have the talent to try to charm one of the princesses away from you." The ranger went deep into his thoughts, remembering that pivotal moment.

_Flashback 5 days ago_

_ Bowser cleared his throat as he revealed what the last document contained. "The last photo is the princesses in question. Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Daisy of Sarasaland."_

_ "Oh my," Jordan responded in a state of awe by the princesses' beauty. "They are beautiful. They must be lucky to inhibit such genes from their parents before."_

_ "Well not only are they beautiful my friend but they are smart, witty, funny, nice, and athletic. Anything you would want in a woman." Bowser then gave the Ranger a playful smile, which caused him to hide his cheeks as they were flushing from the sincere attraction he had to them._

_ "Are you trying to set me up with them sir?" Jordan asked as Bowser just shrugged his shoulders._

_ "You're putting words into my mouth my friend." Bowser replied as he went back on track to talk about the mission._

End of Flashback

"Bowser would try to pull some stupid stunt like that." Mario said with both The Ranger and Luigi nodding in agreement. "So…is there anyone special in your life?" Mario asked with an awkward tone to that question.

"No, at least not yet." The Ranger replied, his mind now focused on the dream that he had a little while ago.

_ Meanwhile, The Ranger slipped into a dream landing him in a strange place. "Where the hell am I?" The Ranger thought as he got a bearing on his surroundings. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The scenery was breathtaking as he appeared to be in a garden of sorts, surrounded by the frontier of space with the stars and the planets surrounding them. "I…" The Ranger was puzzled, trying to understand what happened as he was trying to remember what happened beforehand. "I was fighting Bowser and now I-"The Ranger's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he looked across his way to spot a beautiful woman looking at space too who was a few feet away from him._

_ The Ranger rushed up to her. The woman smiled at him, like she knew who he was. "Oh hello Jordan." The woman replied, making The Ranger come to a complete stop. He had just met this woman, in a dream no less, yet she knows who exactly he is. The Ranger was dumbfounded as the only mentioning of who he truly was based on all the criminals in Colorado that he fought, having known of The Ranger's persona for a good few months having stopped their operations for so long. _

_ "How do you know my name?" The Ranger asked, still seeing that the woman was smiling at him._

_ "Oh you're so silly my special one." The woman replied, putting her hands around The Ranger, kissing his lips ever so passionately. The Ranger was taken aback, now really confused._

_ "And now she's kissing me…" The Ranger thought as he just let her continue. The woman just smiled at him lovingly, The Ranger still confused about the situation. "I'm your what?" The Ranger asked, this dream feeling too surreal. The woman just kissed his cheek._

_ "Your special one." The woman whispered into his ear. "Come let's lay down on the grass."_

_ "Ok…" The Ranger replied, still questioning his presence here in the dream. The woman took his hand as they lay down on the grass at the garden. Then a bright flash of light hit The Ranger as he pulled himself out of unconsciousness, going back to the Sky Arena._

"I did find something interesting from the room before the final Big Red Star door though." The Ranger said as he tried to pull the paper out of his pocket that he had been clinging onto. "I suppose you two were at the same spot as well?" The Mario Brothers nodded, Mario even more so as he had some interesting news to share.

"Boy did we." Mario replied as he tried to pull a document out that he had been saving to read when the adventure was over. "Apparently we aren't the first humans to arrive at the Mushroom Kingdom."

"What do you mean?" The Ranger asked, his curiosity peaking up when that statement was ushered.

"Well-" Mario started but was interrupted by a servant of Toadstool Castle.

"DINNER'S READY!" Yelled the servant as he retreated back to the kitchen, making the final preparations to the dinner table before dinner was ready to be served.

"ALRIGHT TIME TO EAT!" The Mario Brothers yelled as they rushed to the kitchen. "RACE YA THERE BRO!" The Brothers said to each other as they raced to the dining table, leaving their friend to gracefully walk over there.

"Perhaps I'll share what I found another time." The Ranger thought as he put the piece of paper back in his pocket as he caught up with everyone as soon as they got to the kitchen.

The dinner table was setup with flowery decorations made to match the personalities of both Princess Daisy and Princess Peach. The sheet that was covering the table was orange-yellow colored with pink dollies resting on top of various cups, plates and napkins that were going to be used for each person sitting down. The dinner table was a medium sized rectangle with Daisy and Luigi sitting on one wider side and Mario and Peach sitting on the other wider side. The Ranger and Toadsworth sat across from each other on the narrow ends. The Toad servants then served the food in their directions with both Mario and Luigi serving themselves a big plate, as well as the princesses as the four haven't seen good food in a while and were starving. The Ranger had himself a medium sized portion while Toadsworth had himself a small portion.

"So Ranger." Toadsworth began as he began to take a small bite of his food. "Are you planning on going back to the real world? We sure could would be honored to have you become an honorary citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom." The Ranger took a bite of food, chewed it and swallowed it before answering to the question that was directed at him.

"I would love to become a citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom." The Ranger replied, enjoying the possibility of having the chance to enjoy life here, even if it would be awkward to get used to the new surroundings of the Mushroom Kingdom and the prevalent toad species that lived here. "I sure as hell won't be dating any toads though." The Ranger thought as he continued eating his food.

"Then it's settled then. Our new hero will become an official citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom…starting Now!" Toadsworth replied while Mario, Luigi, Daisy and Peach clapped for the honor bestowed upon the Ranger. The Ranger graciously waved his hand around, chuckling a bit to himself. After dinner was over, Toadsworth went over where exactly The Ranger wanted his house constructed . "So, where would you like your house built?" Toadsworth handed him a map, which pointed the whole schematic construction of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Ranger paused for a moment before finding a good place to settle.

"How about there." The Ranger replied as he pointed to an area that was in an area that up on the hills of Toadstool Castle. "I've always like the quiet serenity of the foothills above when I first visited this world." Toadsworth nodded as he put the map away and went off finding his servants in order to construct The Ranger's house. "Before I was a good guy in this world." The Ranger said sheepishly as he followed Toadsworth with some of the construction servants, who were ready to build his house for him.

In the meantime, the Mario Brothers split up and went with their respective princesses up to their rooms. Mario was standing over Peach's balcony feeling the calm wind that nature provided, allowing it to cool himself off. He then thought back to that world with the fire painting and how the climate there was so hot that Luigi had to help carry him over to the rest of the world before Luigi developed cramps of his own. Peach, in her room, was wearing a nightgown carrying the special gift she wanted to give to Mario in order to officially reveal her feelings to him. However, that point became rather mute when they confessed their love on the spot when death was knocking on Mario's door. She approached him rather sneak fully, and put her arms around his neck, starling Mario. "Gah." Mario murmured as he turned around to spot Peach, who was giggling from Mario's little antic. "Must've been out of it." Mario said sheepishly.

"You sure must be tired. After all that hard word in saving little old me." Peach wrapped Mario in a warm embrace. Mario put his hands around Peach in the same embrace.

"Eh it was nothing that me Mario couldn't have faced." Peach then raised an eyebrow in an "oh really" look, thinking that Mario should change his statement before revealing who helped both Mario Brothers. "With the help of The Ranger of course." Mario suddenly said, allowing Peach to return to the warm smile she had displayed earlier. They both let go as Peach was trying to reach for that special something that he wanted to give to Mario. Mario was curious as to what Peach was fidgeting around for. "You got a something for me?" Mario asked in a curious tone.

"It was something I wanted to give to you after our adventure ended, before I really wanted to reveal my feelings for you." Peach replied as she took out what looked like a wooden Mario doll holding a pink heart with the word Peach on it. Mario gently took it from her, smiling at the great craftsmanship it must have taken to make a thing such as this. "It took me about a month to make it. When I started to have some of these feelings initially come into contact. At first when I was making it, I thought the feelings would go away, but they didn't and now I'm starting to know why. Because someone like you would give up everything at a heartbeat, come down to the Mushroom Kingdom on your own power, and save some stranger like me. And now…" Peach gently kissed Mario on the forehead, making him smile dumbly. "I realize that it was a great decision to stay true to my feelings."

"I…I don't know what to say Peach." Mario replied, his eyes getting teary for the love being poured onto him all at once. "Other than." Mario grabbed Peach's neck softly and gave her a passionate kiss just as the full moon came into view, with the stars shining brightly just as that moment began. Mario then let go, with both of them smiling at each other, able to enjoy their first moments as couple.

"I love you." Both of them said to one another.

Meanwhile Daisy and Luigi decided to go over to the pool area. They sat down by the lounging chairs there as they walked over and viewed the stars together, hand in hand, smiling. "Aren't these stars beautiful Weegee." Daisy said admiring the sparkle that they had over the pool a few feet ahead of them.

"They're alright." Luigi said with Daisy giving a playful roll in her eyes. "The more beautiful star I see is the one I'm sitting next to." Luigi then kissed Daisy's gloved hand, making her tear up a bit before resting her head on Luigi's shoulder. With her other hand, she grabbed the special something that she wanted to give to Luigi. She then placed it on Luigi's torso to which he picked it up with his free hand. "What's this?" Luigi curiously asked it looked to be a wooden Luigi doll holding an orange heart with the word Daisy on it.

"It's something I wanted to give it to you after all this craziness happened." Daisy replied with a small smile. "I just wanted you to know how much you meant me ever since you came down from the Warp Pipe to rescue my behind." Both Daisy and Luigi laughed at the last part of that statement as Daisy continued. "It means the world to me that you wanted to do something so selfless, and over the past month I guess I grew to realize that somehow you and me could involve in this world of ours together." Luigi examined the gift Daisy made for him, before putting it in his pocket.

"I think you were right to say that." Luigi replied as both of them passionately kissed one another under the stars as the brightness of the stars illuminated the happy tears streaming down their faces, never wanting one the other one to let go of them. Eventually they had to in order to breathe, but they made it last as long as they wanted it to.

"I love you." They said to each other.

Meanwhile in the Darklands, Bowser finally awoke in what appeared to be his throne room. He was under a hospital room setting with IV fluid in his body making sure that he was pretty much alive. There was also the arrow in a table next to him, the poison long gone from it and entering Bowser's bloodstream. "What the." Bowser thought as he shifted upright from bed position, feeling too comfortable to leave. "But I remember." His thoughts were then interrupted as the figure, who Bowser recognized from before, entered the room.

"Glad to see you're alive." The figure said as he stood in the doorway, making sure his vitals were ok. Bowser rolled his eyes, thinking he was going to be chastised by the figure for failing in his deed to kill the Mario Brothers.

"Yeah glad to see you too I guess." Bowser replied as he checked around the room. "So are you going to yell at me for failing at my plot, like you said I would."

"Actually," The figure said as he approached Bowser trying to shake his hand. "You have furthered my agenda than you could possibly imagine. Now I know the players of the game, their weaknesses and their strengths. I wouldn't have known that if it weren't for your plot to end up flat in your face."

"Oh gee thanks." Bowser said, still shocked that he was still alive. "How in the world did I end up back at my castle anyway?"

"I carried you in my cruiser when you fell down that arena platform. I was surprised to image that the arrow inside you actually saved your life." Bowser's eyes widened at that remark. "Yeah seems that poison designed to humans is like a one up to you Koopas." His small smile changed into a serious face as he overlaid the next part of his plan. "Of course you do know that as of right now, I'm putting my own plan into action and I will need your help."

Bowser grumbled at that remark, but realized he had no choice. "He saved my life I guess." Bowser thought as he took a small sigh of annoyance that now he was the pawn. "What do you need me to do?"

The figure than took out a photograph of the flying ship that he saw, remembering what it looked like.

_Flashback 2 days ago_

_ The flying pirate ship looked like any normal pirate ship with a deck, a few floors to navigate through. Quarters for a good number of people to live on the ship. There was even a mess hall. The thing that was different, however, was the fact that the pirate ship had paddles and flying wings attached to each side of the ship, which was making it able to fly in this sky world. When they got onto the ship, they expected a Koopa ambush at any point, but there wasn't one as it looked like someone beat them to it. There were arrows everywhere, with dead Koopas sprawling all over the place._

_The figure than put what seemed to be a blueprint in his pocket, revealing the bow and arrow that he had. _

_ End of flashback_

The figure smiled especially at the part where he killed off the Koopas secretly. "I want you to make this. In face make a lot of them because we aren't going after the Mushroom Kingdom my friend. We are going after something bigger." With that the figure departed to a different section of the castle, engaging in further steps to advance his plans.

"Wait." Bowser said making the figure stop and turn to face Bowser. "Just who exactly are you?" Bowser asked as he never got a nickname or an identity of the figure standing beside him, just knowing him as this secret ally of theirs.

The figure cleared his throat as he prepared to respond to that answer. "In reality we have silent guardians. They watch us, follow us and protect us from the unseen and the corrupt. Yet they are the harbinger of everything that is wrong within this universal society of ours. They call themselves Rangers." Bowser's eyes widened again remembering his dealing with The Ranger.

"No wonder why he wanted me to go after him to be my apprentice." Bowser thought, as that was his secret motive behind the first step in this whole ordeal in the first place.

"Then they are those," the figure continued. "Who find the garbage of this world. The people they pompously declare themselves the righteous when they are actually the guilty and hunt them down. I guess what you could call me Bowser, is The Hunter." The Hunter then shut the door behind him, allowing Bowser to get some rest to prepare for his own agena.


End file.
